UN General Assembly
1990

The need for reassurance is not of course confined to one community. We fully recognize the concerns of Unionists - their fears and the sense of threat that many of their community live with. We are conscious that our understanding of the Unionist position would be greatly enhanced by hearing Unionist views at first hand. That is why we have so often and so genuinely expressed our readiness to enter into dialogue with leaders of that community. With so much of substance requiring discussion between us, it is surely in no one's interest that artificial barriers be placed in the way of such dialogue. I would wish, finally, that this body should be conscious of a particularly positive development in Anglo-Irish relations since our last General Assembly. Three cases dating from the mid-1970s in which Irish people were widely believed to have been wrongly convicted in British courts - the Guildford Four, the Maguire family and the Birmingham Six - have been of great concern to my Government and have cast a deep shadow over Anglo-Irish relations.