Anglo Irish Agreement, 1985, BBC NI News Summary and Studio Debate

[@Runboyrun89]

John Hume an absolute hero. The man who got it and built the agreement. So many have reputations based on his work.

[@RobertK1993]

Ulster Unionists where stupid to oppose this it gave them way more then Irish Republican/Nationalist side.

[@Runboyrun89]

Some argument for that. Notionally it was the Irish government for the first time saying they only wanted NI by vote after the 1937 Constitution. Ultimately though the AAI needs to be viewed through the lense of the two governments setting parameters for the first time without the parties of the North. It was a necessary step. It is odd given we had Sunningdale already which had support of the constitutional parties and had much of the formula of the later GFA. But really we needed the two Governments to come together with parameters and clear indications of motives before the parties could inch towards those parameters (the SDLP of course were always on board, but that was inevitable as nationalism never had the levels of ideology that Unionism had imo). Ultimately though everyone got a bit extra by the time of the GFA in terms of practicalities. Unionists got the South’s claim over the territory removed from their constitution. They got the majority of the Provos to the table to agree to peace. On the nationalist side, they got their full parity of esteem with passports and removal of iconography etc.