The International Fund For Ireland, 1986-1989 (1990)

The controversial Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed at Hillsborough Castle by the British prime minister, Mrs Thatcher, and the Irish taoiseach, Dr Fitzgerald, on 15th November 1985. Article 10 provided that the two governments should ‘consider the possibility of securing international support’ for ‘the economic and social development of those areas of both parts of Ireland which have suffered most severely from the consequences of the instability of recent years’. By a supplemental Treaty between the two governments, signed on 18th September 1986, there was constituted the ‘International Fund for Ireland’, which came into existence on 12th December 1986, and held its first meeting, under my chairman- ship, two days later...