More than nineteen years since the Good Friday Agreement, the Unionists and Protestants remain divided and uncertainty still on the horizon for the future of Ireland (Byrne, M. 2016)
The Sunningdale Agreement was signed on December 9th 1973, the political, socio-economical were terrible, it was a ticking-bomb times, the agreement were urgently needed due the dire situation in Northern Ireland (McGrattan, 2006)
This agreement was seen as result intensification of violence between the Unionists or The Protestant, they were about sixty percent of NI population and the Nationalist who are majority Catholics who are about forty percent of NI population. These times also are referred to as “Troubles” in NI history. The sectarian division and its violent nature in Western Europe was concern in continent in which more than three thousand people lost their lives and many more injured in “Troubles”. (Kennedy-Pipe 1997, pp50-56). Despite the collapse of this agreement, in many ways this agreement is seen as important step toward Northern Ireland peace process, moreover, this agreement become foundation for the Good Friday agreement or sometime is referred to as Belfast Agreement this agreement was reached on April 10th 1998(Tonge, J. 2000) Between, British, Irish and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, on how should the Northern Ireland be governed such as power-sharing. The concept of power sharing in Northern Ireland was opposed by many Unionists Hardliners such as Ian Paisley, in which the saw the deal as unfair and undemocratic. However, the British government did not shared same views because they saw the situation in NI were terrible. This essay will attempt to illustrate reasons for the failures of The Sunningdale Agreement, will look at comparison between the Northern Ireland to other Britain’s foreign policies’ complication for the last century, such as Israeli-Palestine conflicts. Both these conflicts been ongoing for nearly a century, and there are no concrete sign that in any time soon these conflicts would come to End.
In the 1500th century Ireland remained a Catholic country while England turn into a Protestant, in the late 1602 England started to invade Ireland by 1608 the invasion was accomplished and the plantation process had begun, at the same time the opposition to this cause have continued to this day.
Ever since the emergence of NI in 1920, the Conflicts and violence have only accelerated all way through end of twenty century, particularly since 1968 all the way to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, The “Troubles” Was the worst violence in Western Europe sine WW2. The history of Conflict of NI is not only a Century old but can be traced back to the Sixteenth century the period of “Plantation” by the protestant from Scotland and England to the Ulster area or the nine county in NR, the native Irish Catholic saw them as coloniser, from England and Scotland therefore the opposed them ever since. The conflict of NI is simply is perceived as the conflict between the two key group, the Nationalist and The Unionist, majority vote for DUP and perceive themselves religiously protestant, British, and want the NI to continue as part of Great Britain. In contrary to that, the Nationalist, who are mainly Irish-catholic, they mainly support Sinn Fein, the Political version of IRA and the labour Party, moreover, they want whole of Ireland to be reunited as United Ireland without any influence from Britain.