Retired Irish ambassador, Sean Donlon, and former Stormont Agriculture Minister, Bríd Rodgers will be among the speakers at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the collapse of the 1974 Sunningdale Agreement.
The agreement brought together UUP, SDLP and Alliance members in a power-sharing executive for the first time.
It was headed by former Stormont Prime Minister Brian Falconer with SDLP leader Gerry Fitt as deputy leader. It also included future leader, John Hume among others.
Signed in December 1973, the Agreement collapsed on May 28 1974 when Mr Falconer resigned in the face of massive loyalist paramilitary intimidation and violence in the form of the Ulster Workers’ Council strike.
The anniversary of the collapse will be marked by an event on Tuesday at Ulster University’s Belfast campus organised by the John and Pat Hume Foundation, in association with the Sir Edward Heath Foundation (2pm to 5pm).
Hume Foundation secretary, Tim Attwood said the event would feature many of the diplomats involved in the negotiations which led to the agreement as well as some of those involved in the executive.
“The Sunningdale Agreement is often seen as a precursor to the Good Friday Agreement which successfully established a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland,” Mr Attwood said.
Speakers will also include cross bench peer and emeritus professor of politics at Queens, Lord Paul Bew as well as former 1973 SDLP Assembly member, Hugh Logue. They will be joined by: former diplomat, Noel Dorr; former assistant private secretary to Brian Faulkner, Chris McCabe; Hume Foundation chairwoman, Dawn Purvis; peace activist, Eileen Weir and former head of the Representation of the European Commission in Britain, Geoffrey Martin.
Places can be reserved at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sunningdale-agreement-50-years-on-tickets-899771188847
