The Sunningdale Agreement and the Power-sharing Executive, 1973–1974


The anti-assembly unionist groups won 25 seats in total. Whitelaw hoped that the pro-assembly UUP, the Alliance Party and the SDLP would offer enough support to see the assembly firmly established. He mistook the SDLP’s success in securing 19 seats as a sign that they had become the voice of Northern Irish Catholics. However, there was significant support for republicanism within the Catholic community, but because Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA, had not put forward any candidates for the elections, this went somewhat unnoticed. Whitelaw also underestimated the strength of the anti-assembly unionists, believing that he could eventually win them over with the support of Faulkner and his pro-assembly UUP members.


The election had taken place before the details of either power-sharing or, more importantly, the ‘Irish dimension’ had been fully worked out. This would have serious consequences for how events would unfold over the following weeks, as Faulkner sought to win popular support for his stance.


Establishing a Power-sharing Executive


Throughout the summer of 1973 the members of the assembly met to discuss what steps needed to be taken to form a new government. Paisley’s DUP and Craig’s Vanguard attempted to prevent any progress by shouting down their opponents, but the majority of members agreed that the assembly offered the best chance of resolving to the political crisis.


Before power could be transferred from Westminster to Belfast, an agreement on who would serve in the new power-sharing executive had to be reached and the Council of Ireland had to be established.


Following protracted talks, it was announced in November that Faulkner’s UUP, the SDLP and the Alliance Party had agreed to form an executive of 11 members, with Brian Faulkner as Chief Executive and Gerry Fitt as Deputy Chief Executive. There were to be six UUP members, four SDLP and one Alliance Party member. There were violent clashes at DUP and Vanguard protests against this move.


The executive also agreed to establish a Council of Ireland. There were different proposals about its role.


• Faulkner proposed that the council would be made up of members of the Northern Irish executive and the Irish government, and facilitate cooperation on issues of common interest such as transport and tourism.


• John Hume argued that the council should not only contain members of both governments but politicians from the wider assembly and Dáil as well. He envisaged that the council would have a real input into Northern Irish affairs, including policing.


Whitelaw accepted Hume’s proposal in the belief that SDLP success would help to weaken nationalist support for the IRA. Faulkner, somewhat reluctantly, went along with Whitelaw’s decision in order to progress the handover of power. On 21 November Whitelaw announced from the steps of Stormont that an agreement in principle had been reached on a Council of Ireland, and the new members of the executive posed for photographs. This was a remarkable achievement: unionist and nationalist politicians had agreed to put aside their differences and stand together as the new government of Northern Ireland. The Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, welcomed the announcement, but loyalists saw it as the ultimate betrayal. Republicans, for their part, accused the SDLP of selling out to the British government.


To formally conclude the negotiations, the new executive and the British and Irish governments met to agree the finer points of the arrangements. However, before the talks got under way in Sunningdale, England, the British Prime Minister, Heath, in an ill-advised move, recalled the experienced Whitelaw to Westminster and replaced him as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland with Francis Pym.


POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN NORTHERN IRELAND, 1949–1993 333


CHAPTER 11CHAPTER 6 TOPIC 5


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