The Anglo-Irish Agreement: rethinking its legacy

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough on 15 November 1985 provides an opportunity to re-examine its legacy and to reconsider its ‘moment’ in modern Irish history. It is true to say that after the Anglo-Irish Agreement, nothing was ever quite the same again. How and why that is so is the subject of this book.In doing so, it provides new perspectives on the impact of Anglo-Irish Agreement through an exploration of the key concepts of the Northern Ireland Troubles. The outcomes are twofold: firstly, it identifies not only the impact of the Anglo-Irish Agreement on the conduct of Irish politics but also its influence on how the Northern Ireland problem was conceived; secondly, it considers its legacy on the discourse and practice of politics. The concern is not simply with the Anglo-Irish Agreement’s momentary impact but with its status as an enduring moment of political modification. Thus the book re-examines the Anglo-Irish Agreement in terms of the history of British-Irish relations in the twentieth century, reconsiders the Agreement of 1985 in the light of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and reassesses its legacy a quarter of a century after its signing. In bringing together some of the most distinguished scholars in the field and by addressing the key challenges and possibilities which the Anglo-Irish Agreement bequeathed, this book will appeal to students of British and Irish politics, contemporary history and peace and conflict studies.