UN General Assembly
1986

We set out to provide a framework for achieving peace, stability and reconciliation. We did not intend that the Agreement should produce ready-made solutions to a problem which dates back to the Anglo-Irish settlement of over 65 years ago, with origins deep in the past. But we were convinced that, if we could establish the right framework, solutions would come progressively and in time. The Anglo-Irish Agreement is the result. In its important first article the Agreement declares that any change in the status of Northern Ireland would cone about only with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland. The present wish of a majority of the people there is for no change, but if in the future a majority of the people of Northern Ireland clearly wish for and formally consent to the establishment of a united Ireland both Governments will introduce and support in their respective Parliaments legislation to give effect to that wish.