Sunningdale and the Ulster Workers’ Strike (Part One): The Power-sharing ‘experiment’

In 1973 the ‘Sunningdale Agreement’ established power-sharing between the UUP and the SDLP

From left to right, Oliver Napier, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, British prime minister Edward Heath, Brian Faulkner, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Gerry Fitt, Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

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thumbnail: From left to right, Oliver Napier, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, British prime minister Edward Heath, Brian Faulkner, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Gerry Fitt, Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

Sunningdale preceded the Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement by 25 years.

It failed, but it did establish power-sharing as the preferred solution to Northern Ireland’s problems.

Sunningdale involved power-sharing between the UUP and the SDLP less than 2 years after the collapse of the NI Parliament and at the very height of the Troubles – a remarkable achievement.

It even had an All-Ireland dimension – but Sunningdale has been mostly forgotten.

What was it?

How did it come about?

And who were the main players?

In the first part of a three-part series, Ciarán Dunbar explores the Sunningdale Agreement and its workings – and asks if it ever had a chance.

Sunningdale and the Ulster Workers Strike (Part One): The Power-sharing ‘experiment’

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Guests:

  • Dr. Michael Kerr, a historian and a political scientist and author of ‘The Destructors, the story of Northern Ireland's lost peace process’
  • Don Anderson, a former BBC journalist and author of ‘Fourteen May Days - The inside story of the Loyalist Strike of 1974’
  • Dr Robert Ramsay, the principal private secretary to NI Prime Minister Brian Faulkner in 1972
  • And unionist commentator Alex Kane