Sunningdale Agreement Text

On 21 November, an agreement was reached on a voluntary coalition of pro-agreement parties (contrary to the provisions of the Belfast Agreement, which defines the d`Hondt method for electing ministers in proportion to the main parties in the Assembly). Prominent members of the executive were former Unionist Prime Minister Brian Faulkner as executive head of the SDLP, Gerry Fitt, deputy chief executive, future Nobel laureate and SDLP leader John Hume as minister of commerce and chairman of the Alliance Party Oliver Napier as minister of legal affairs and head of the Office for Law Reform. They saw their fears confirmed when, in a speech at Trinity College Dublin, SDLP Councillor Hugh Logue publicly described the Council of Ireland as „a vehicle that would lead unionists to a united Ireland“. In the February 1974 general election, 11 out of 12 constituencies in Northern Ireland were won by the United Ulster Unionist Council, a coalition of anti-Sunningdale unionists. .