September 26 1974
Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Dr Garret FitzGerald, said at the United Nations yesterday that the principal elements of the Sunningdale Agreement for a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland were essential to any enduring solution there.
The Irish Government had not been deflected from the efforts at conciliation by the rejection of the nine-month-old accord by the Northern Ireland majority, he told the UN General Assembly.
“The aim of my government is, by initiating constructive policies and by rejecting the pursuit of mere self-interest, to work towards the calming of passions and the achievement of peace with justice in Northern Ireland,” he said.
Accordingly, since the last UN session, Ireland had made it clear that it abjured irredentism and accepted that the factual position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom could be altered only with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland.
Unhappily, even this clear statement, which the Irish Government had offered to incorporate in a solemn agreement to be registered at the UN, had failed to persuade the majority of the Northern Irish to accept the Sunningdale terms, Dr FitzGerald said.
He spoke of the “self-righteous and ruthless men – the members of the illegal IRA” who were able to exploit the situation in Northern Ireland by claiming to act as defenders of a threatened minority.
“In an atmosphere where all live in fear of violence from any one of several sources, reason cannot easily prevail, nor moderate policies gain the widespread support they need to bring an end to the crisis racking the community,” he told the 138-nation assembly.
Despite the setback of the Sunningdale arrangement collapsing months earlier, Garret Fitzgerald believed its principles would form the basis of a solution, as they did with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
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Nixon’s condition dangerous
A blood clot in former President Richard Nixon’s leg has moved into his lung, according to his physician.
Dr John Lungren, who has been treating Mr Nixon at Long Beach Memorial Hospital in California, said: “This is a potentially dangerous situation.”
The discovery of the moved clot means Mr Nixon will have to stay in hospital more than the week originally planned, said Dr Lungren.
