The New Ireland Forum was a forum in 1983–1984 at which Irish nationalist political parties discussed potential political developments that might alleviate the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Forum was established by Garret FitzGerald, then Taoiseach, under the influence of John Hume, for "consultations on the manner in which lasting peace and stability can be achieved in a new Ireland through the democratic process".[1][2] The Forum was initially dismissed, by Unionists, Sinn Féin, and others, as a nationalist talking-shop.[3] The Forum's report, published on 2 May 1984, listed three possible alternative structures: a unitary state, a federal/confederal state, and joint British/Irish authority. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, dismissed the three alternatives one by one at a press conference, each time saying, "that is out", in a response that became known as the "out, out, out" speech. However, Garret Fitzgerald, who described the Forum's report as "an agenda not a blueprint",[4] valued it as establishing a nationalist consensus from which the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement could be framed.
- ^ Davy Kelleher McCarthy Ltd (1984) p.3
- ^ Fitzgerald, Garrrett (11 May 1983). "Questions. Oral Answers. - British Policy on Northern Ireland". Dáil Éireann debates. Oireachtas. pp. Vol.342 No.5 p.5 c.907. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- ^ Mitchell, Thomas G. (2002). Indispensable traitors: liberal parties in settler conflicts. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-313-31774-3. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
- ^ "Toasts of the President and Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald of Ireland at a Dinner Honoring the President in Dublin". Ronald Reagan Library. 3 June 1984. Archived from the original on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2010.