Letters

Unity, polls and consent

Principle of consent was already incorporated in United Kingdom statute before 1985

Mon May 30 2022 - 00:04

Sir, – Michael Lillis writes that in the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, the United Kingdom accepted that Irish unity would be implemented if there was a majority for an end to partition in Northern Ireland (Letters, May 27th).

This principle of consent was already incorporated in United Kingdom statute before 1985. The 1973 Northern Ireland Constitution Act Part I (1) declared that “in no event will Northern Ireland or any part of it cease to be part of Her Majesty’s dominions and of the United Kingdom without the consent of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland voting for it in a poll held for the purposes of this section in accordance with Schedule 1 to this Act”.

The Ireland Act of 1949 vested the power to alter Northern Ireland’s constitutional status in that region’s parliament. – Yours, etc,

CDC ARMSTRONG,

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Belfast.