Northern Ireland 2125?

Nothing to do with party support. More to do with accurate historical commentary.

Sunningdale was only agreed on 9th Dec 1973. The day after (yes the day after!) this happened:

Monday 10 December 1973

 Loyalists announced the establishment of the Ulster Army Council (UAC) to resist the proposed Council of Ireland. The UAC was an umbrella group for the main Loyalist paramilitary groups and included the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

then on the 4th of January this happened

Friday 4 January 1974

 The Ulster Unionist Council (UUC, the policy making body of the Ulster Unionist Party; UUP) met and voted, by 427 votes to 374, to reject the 'Council of Ireland' as proposed in the Sunningdale Agreement.

The Executive had just started and ALREADY Unionists were reneging on an Agreement.

Then this happened

Monday 7 January 1974
 Brian Faulkner, then Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Executive, resigned as leader of Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) after it rejected the Sunningdale Agreement on 4 January 1974.

then this

Tuesday 22 January 1974

 Eighteen Loyalist protestors were forcefully removed from the front benches of the Assembly. It took eight Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers to carry Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to steps outside the Assembly building. Harry West succeeded Brian Faulkner as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

then this

Thursday 28 February 1974

General Election

 A general election was held in the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland 30,000 members of the security forces were on duty during the day however there were a number of shooting and bombing incidents across the region.

 The election in Northern Ireland was in effect a referendum on power-sharing, and the Council of Ireland as proposed in the Sunningdale Agreement. There was no electoral pact between the parties in favour of the Executive.

There was however a very successful pact amongst those opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement who joined forces in the United Ulster Unionist Council (UUUC).

The UUUC was formed by three main Loyalist parties: Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), (Ulster) Vanguard, and Official Unionists (West). These parties agreed to put forward one candidate in each of the constituencies.

The Campaign slogan of the UUUC was, 'Dublin is just a Sunningdale away'. Candidates standing on behalf of the UUUC won 11 of the 12 Northern Ireland seats, gaining 51.1 per cent of the valid votes.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) held West Belfast. [While the election did not mean an immediate end to the power-sharing Executive, it did provide those opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement with a powerful mandate to continue their opposition to it.]

then this

Tuesday 23 April 1974

 The United Ulster Unionist Council (UUUC) held a three-day conference in Portrush, County Antrim. The conference was attended by representatives of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and also by Enoch Powell. The main focus of the conference is to agree a strategy for bringing about the end of the Executive. At the end of the conference (26 April 1974) the UUUC called for a Northern Ireland regional parliament in a federal United Kingdom (UK).

and as we know this:

Tuesday 14 May 1974

Beginning of the Ulster Workers Council Strike

 There was a debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly on a motion condemning power-sharing and the Council of Ireland. The motion was defeated by 44 votes to 28. At 6.00pm, following the conclusion of the Assembly debate, Harry Murray announced to a group of journalists that a general strike was to start the following day. The organisation named as being responsible for calling the strike was the Ulster Workers' Council (UWC). The action was to become known as the UWC Strike.

All during this, BOTH sides were killing and maiming each other. Not just ONE side.

The Unionist/Loyalist bloc including their paramilitary groups took down Sunningdale.

Paramilitaries can bring down nothing if the will is there among politicians - if politicians live up to agreements they have made.

In the case of Sunningdale - 'politicians' with the assistance of paramilitaries brought down Sunningdale. It's there in the facts of history.

That was the difference when the GFA came around. Why, because Unionism/Loyalism had been so weakened and divided they couldn't and boy did they try.

Just for my curious mind.

What do the Unionists and partitionists here think would have happened had the '73 Border Poll gone the other way?

Surely if you posit a view that the IRA should have stopped, you have considered what would have happened if they did?

You have thought about that yeh?

It's curious that you would push the, 'PIRA were responsible for the conditions' talk, but are very resistant to discussing who was responsible for the conditions that led to the PIRA in the first place, or worse; try to equivocate understanding

the conditions that led to the PIRA as any sort of support for them.

They cannot go there because they would have to admit the IRA were a symptom of the conflict/war caused by a wholly wrong partition and Unionist one party rule for the 50 years after it, not the cause.
They'll ally with those remaining belligerent Unionists to ensure partition continues.