COALITION AGAIN AND HILLSBOROUGH AGREEMENT

Despite Haughey's success, there were ominous signs of dissatisfaction within his own party. In January, while still in opposition, he could not secure the expulsion from the party of Charles McCreevy, a TD for Kildare who was critical of him. In March he confronted a failed attempt by Limerick TD Desmond O'Malley to challenge his leadership of the party. Anglo-Irish relations then soured when the Irish took a neutral stand on resolutions by the European Community and the United Nations supportive of the British in the Falklands War with Argentina during April and May. Also in May, following a Dublin byelection, which the Fine Gael candidate won, Haughey's electoral agent was arrested for personation, that is, voting in more than one place. Another incident involved the resignation in August of Attorney General Patrick Connolly after his apartment mate was arrested for murder. The Taoiseach labeled the episode "grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre, unbelievable," terms that critic Conor Cruise O'Brien turned into the derisive acronym "GUBU," which would plague Haughey for the rest of his career.

In November the Workers' Party and some independents withdrew their support from the government, resulting in a vote of no confidence, a dissolution, and a general election in which Fine Gael gained its greatest number of seats ever, 70, which, when combined with the 16 seats won by Labour, gave the coalition an absolute majority with which to form a government. Dick Spring, the recently elected leader of the Labour Party, became Tanaiste and minister first for the environment and then for energy.

The new government began to pursue a new approach to the Northern Ireland imbroglio, as it hoped to both offset the significant boost in popular support gained by Sinn Fein since the hunger strike and to mollify strained Anglo-Irish relations. In October voters elected another Northern Ireland Assembly in which the Unionists gained 26 seats, the Alliance 10, and the SDLP 14. The capture of five seats by Sinn Fein gained world attention. That party had decided to continue its entry into normal politics that had begun with the Sands's victory in a by-election while on hunger strike. The political approach at this stage served as a complement, not a replacement, to the armed struggle being conducted by the IRA. Then in the June 1983 general election, the leader of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, was elected to the House of Commons for West Belfast, although he did not take his seat. He gained 16,000 votes, while two other non-Unionist candidates, the incumbent, Gerry Fitt, who had left the SDLP, and Dr. Joseph Hendron, the SDLP candidate, gained more than 10,000 each.

Nonpolitical actions by the IRA during the period included a breakout of 39 prisoners from the Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland, of whom 20 were recaptured, in September 1983; the bombing of a hotel in Brighton, England, in October 1984 during the Conservative Party conference in which the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, narrowly escaped while five others were killed; and the killing of nine by a mortar attack on a RUC barracks in Newry, County Down, in February 1985.

A central gesture by the Irish government in its efforts to wean potential support away from Sinn Fein and to ingratiate non-nationalists in Northern Ireland was the summoning of a New Ireland Forum to which representatives of all constitutional parties in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were invited to participate. Naturally the Unionists and the DUP did not come, but some individual unionists did testify at its hearings, as did numerous religious, academic, and business figures from Northern Ireland. Chaired by Dr. Colm O hEocha, the president of University College Galway, the forum, which included representative figures from Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and Labour, sought to examine the effect of partition and the contemporary turmoil on Ireland as a whole, and to examine and suggest possible future alternative structures that might be amenable to both communities within Northern Ireland and both parts of Ireland. It issued its final report in May 1984 suggesting various solutions. One was a unification of the island in a unitary state, another was a federal structure, and the third was a mixture of a federal structure and an arrangement to share sovereignty over Northern Ireland by both Britain and Ireland.

The report was issued a month before the visit to Ireland by U. S. president Ronald Reagan, who was given an honorary degree, addressed the Oireachtas, and visited his ancestral roots in Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, while also encountering some protests from Irish critical of aspects of American foreign policy. The government hoped that the close ties of Reagan and Thatcher might rebound to improved Anglo-Irish relations. However, the first reaction of Thatcher to the three alternatives suggested by the New Ireland Forum was dismissive, as she said each of the three was "out." However, the diplomatic corps of both countries began to work earnestly to remedy the problem, as the Irish made the point that the forum had only offered the three suggestions as talking points and was open to any other arrangement that would gain a crosscommunity consensus.

Diplomatic work bore fruit when an Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed at Hillsborough Castle in November 1985 by Thatcher and FitzGerald precisely along the lines indicating a commitment to institutions for Northern Ireland that would have cross-community support as a prerequisite. The agreement also called for an ongoing Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to deal with Northern Ireland matters, ranging from nationalist-Catholic grievances to security concerns. An essential element in the agreement was the acceptance of the principle that any change in the constitutional structure of Northern Ireland and its relationship to Britain would require the consent of the majority of the population. However, Unionists were outraged at the agreement, especially since they were not involved in, nor informed about, the developments leading up to it, as were the SDLP. They viewed it as an intrusion by a foreign government, the Irish republic, in the affairs of the United Kingdom. All Unionists and DUP members of the House of Commons resigned their seats in protest, necessitating by-elections, which they hoped would show a clear mandate of popular opposition. Fourteen of the 15 were returned, but the SDLP gained a seat with the defeat of James Nicholson by Seamus Mallon in the Newry and Armagh constituency. Unionist protests would continue for a few years afterward. Unionists even protested against the RUC for its restraining Orange marches through Catholic areas. Not until five years later, in 1990, did they agree to enter into discussions with other Northern Ireland parties and with the Irish government on matters related to Northern Ireland.

There was disappointment in some nationalist quarters as well. Sinn Fein and its various Irish-American support groups labeled the agreement as the "copper-fastening of partition." Haughey and Fianna Fail were not supportive. Remarkably, the future president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, resigned from the Labour Party in protest at the agreement because it had not included the Unionists in its preparations! In a demonstration of the Irish government's determination to cooperate in resisting violence, Dublin signed the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism in February 1986.

There were two controversial constitutional amendment referenda during the period of the coalition government. The first, a right to life or antiabortion amendment, had been proposed by various groups disturbed at the Irish Supreme Court's liberality in its reading of rights in the wording of the constitution even though not explicitly stated. They had in mind the 1974 ruling declaring unconstitutional the prohibition on the importation of contraceptives. They feared the Court might in the future read the right to have an abortion as implicit in the constitution despite legislation outlawing the same. In the lead up to the 1982 general election both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael endorsed the idea for a referendum, but, once in power, FitzGerald developed reservations. He and his party did not support the amendment, although individual members of his party did. The Labour Party opposed it. Nonetheless the amendment, which was vigorously supported by the Catholic hierarchy, carried with 66.9 percent of the votes in September 1983.

Three years later the government proposed an amendment allowing divorce in limited circumstances, which, if adopted, would alter the existing constitutional stipulation against the dissolution of marriage. Fianna Fail opposed the measure, as did the Catholic hierarchy. Troubling to many were the property implications that would be consequent on a divorce, a matter of special concern primarily in rural areas where some feared agricultural holdings of a family would be divided. The amendment was rejected by 63.5 percent of the voters.

In February 1987 the Labour Party's withdrawal of support for the government because of proposed budgetary restraints on social spending resulted in a general election. The election saw the appearance of a new party, the Progressive Democrats formed in December 1985 primarily by anti-Haughey members of Fianna Fail. They were led by Desmond O'Malley and offered a program of economic conservatism and social liberalism, as well as a spirit of accommodation toward Northern Ireland and hostility to Sinn Fein and the IRA. Another player in the election was Sinn Fein, which for the first time indicated a willingness, if elected, to take seats in what it had previously regarded as an illegitimate Bail. Fourteen Progressive Democrats were elected, surpassing Labour, which obtained 12 seats, while Sinn Fein was unsuccessful. However, Fianna Fail won 81 seats, 30 more than Fine Gael. With the support of a few independents, Charles Haughey again formed a government.