Quill
  1. Overview: Northern Ireland Downing Street Joint Declaration (1993)
  2. Full Record: Northern Ireland Downing Street Joint Declaration (1993)
  3. Committee:Anglo-Irish Liaison Group
  4. Friday, 24 September 1993, at 12:00

Northern Ireland Downing Street Joint Declaration (1993)

This project models the series of formal and informal negotiations which led to the publication, in December 1993, of a declaration issued jointly by the British and Irish Governments. The Joint Declaration was a critical policy document which paved the way for a ceasefire and the entry of Sinn Féin into formal talks. It also laid out a shared set of principles – including, crucially, self-determination for the people of Ireland subject to the consent of the people of Northern Ireland – which would come to underpin the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and provide a framework for its ratification.

Anglo-Irish Liaison Group

This group was set up as a sub-committee of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Its remit during this period was to produce a Framework Document which became entwined with the drafting of the Joint Declaration.

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Session 20876: 1993-09-24 12:00:02

[Exact time unknown] The first British draft of the Framework Document that the Liaison Group had been mandated to produce was handed over to Ó hUiginn by Thomas during an informal bilateral meeting. Since this meant both delegations had access to it, we have considered it to be on the table in the committee from this point onwards.

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24 September 1993 British Draft of the Framework Agreement (Annotated Copy) - (file)

Joint Framework Document - heavily annotated.

Enclosure: Commentary by Quentin Thomas on Draft Eight of the Joint Declaration Submitted by the Irish Government and Record of Discussion with Seán Ó hUiginn - (file)

Quentin Thomas encloses a record of a meeting between himself and Seán Ó hUiginn discussing the Joint Declaration Initiative, particularly a new draft (JD8) presented by the Irish government, of which Ó hUiginn was the principal author. This conversation was a preliminary meeting to a scheduled meeting of the Liaison Group in Dublin on 1st October, where principles and language relevant to the Joint Declaration Initiative (JDI) were to be discussed. The Irish government continued to prefer the JDI to overt political development and had resolved to exclude the Provisionals until the British could be brought onboard with the document's phrasing. Discussion between Thomas and Ó hUiginn centred on paragraph 4. Issues raised by the British government included silence in the draft on: the constitutional guarantee, reform of Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution. Also problematic were references to irish 'unity' and 'self-determination for Ireland as a whole'. The Irish government remained enthusiastic about the JDI following this discussion. The important context of the talks between John Hume and Gerry Adams - and how far these involved knowledge of the JDI - is discussed in a postscript.

Joint Framework Document: British Draft – 24 September 1993 - (file)

Photocopied [British draft of the Joint Framework Document as handed to Ó hUiginn by Thomas on 24 September 1993]. The joint working paper sets out general principles of a proposed new agreement and examines the issues of devolution; North/South institutions; intergovernmental relations; constitutional issues; endorsement.

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