The Northern Ireland peace agreement could have been reached in the autumn of 1969, the former president of The Workers' Party, Mr Tomas Mac Giolla, said yesterday.
At that time, "Jim Callaghan [then British prime minister] conceded almost all the demands of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, including implementing an unarmed police service," he told the party's Easter 1916 commemoration at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin.
"Since then, over 100 lives per year have been needlessly and ruthlessly snuffed out," he said. "Everyone must now do all in their power to ensure that no more lives are lost in this way."
