Memoir on "The making of the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985", 2003

File

Reference Code: GBR/0014/MISC 74

Scope and Contents

The Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) signed by Garret FitzGerald and Margaret Thatcher on 15 November 1985 was unique in providing a treaty-based arrangement for the government of a territory disputed between two States. In effect it gave the Irish Government an intrusive role in the processes of the government of Northern Ireland. Sir David Goodall, formerly Deputy Head of both the Foreign and Cabinet Offices, kept a personal journal throughout the negotiations from September 1983 to December 1985. He later transformed this into a single narrative account.

Dates

Creation: 2003

Conditions Governing Access

Open

Biographical / Historical

Diplomat serving as Head of Western European Department, FCO, 1975-9; Minister, Bonn, 1979-82; Deputy Secretary, Cabinet Office, l982-4; Deputy Under-Secretary of State, FCO, 1984-7; and High Commissioner to India, 1987-91

Extent

1 item(s) (1 item in folder)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The item was presented to Churchill Archives Centre by Sir David Goodall in September 2003.

Related Materials

See also the interview for the British Diplomatic Oral History Programme by David Barrie, who worked with Goodall on the Anglo-Irish Agreement (DOHP 220).

Published as 'The Making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985: A Memoir by David Goodall' by Frank Sheridan, Editor, in 2021

Originator(s)

Goodall, Sir Arthur David Saunders, b. 1931, Knight, diplomat

General

Scope and Contents description taken from published version of text, 'The Making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985: A Memoir by David Goodall' by Frank Sheridan, [Editor]