Leaving Cert History Northern Ireland Downing Street Declaration

1. The Downing Street Declaration
1993

2. Peace Talks
• By 1988 Hume (SDLP) agreed to peace talks with Adams
(Sinn Fein). The two got on well and had respect for each
other
• Hume was trying to convince Adams that the British did not
want a part in the running of NI and that Ireland would
never be reunited as one by using violence. Adams didn’t
believe this until the new Secretary for State Peter Brooke
said the same.
• Brooke also said that the British would take the Nationalists
aims as seriously as the Unionist’s if the IRA stopped their
violent campaign.

3. • Brooke began talks with Unionists – the fact that
they would go to talks showed that they would
accept the fact that the South of Ireland would have
a say in the North
• Hume was writing a “joint declaration” which would
have to be agreed by Rep of Ireland and Britain
• 1990 - John Major became the new British Prime
Minister (in a good position as he was much less
hated than Thatcher) and Albert Reynolds became
the new Irish Taoiseach. They were very open to
peace.
• After more IRA bombings in Belfast the two decided
to sign the Downing Street Declaration in Dec 1993

4. Downing Street Declaration 1993
• 1. said that the people of NI had the right to decide their own
future without interference from London or Dublin govts
• 2. NI would become part of a 32 county united Ireland if, and
only if, a majority of the NI population wanted to be.
• 3. The island of Ireland, North and South, as a whole had the
right to solve issues between themselves without the
interference from other countries.
• 4. it allowed parties like Sinn Fein and DUP who were attached
to violence to sit down for peace talks IF they stop supporting
violence. 10 months after the agreement was made
paramilitaries on both sides had agreed to ceasefires.

5. Results of the DSD 1993
• (+)The British outlined that their only job in NI was to
“encourage” peace.
• (+)The Irish govt accepted that they could not force the
Protestant majority of NI to be part of a country they didn’t
want to be part of.
• (+)The paramilitaries accepted that violence had not worked so
far and wouldn’t in the future so they agreed to ceasefire.
• (+)Five years after signing DSD the Good Friday Agreement was
signed which created a power-sharing executive in NI – this
time SDLP, Sinn Fein, DUP and UUP were all involved.
• (+)NI has been mostly peaceful since.