Long-term Effects
The Agreement failed to bring an immediate end to political violence in Northern Ireland; neither did it reconcile the two communities. The devolved power-sharing government envisaged by the agreement would not become a reality for many years, and then in quite a different form. However, it did improve co-operation between the British and Irish governments, which was key to the creation of the Good Friday Agreement 13 years later. As such, it can be seen as a major stepping-stone in the Peace Process, of which the inter-governmental component was crucial.
At a strategic level, the agreement demonstrated that the British recognised as legitimate the wishes of the Republic to have a direct interest in the affairs of Northern Ireland. It also demonstrated to unionists that they could not veto political change as, in the end, the British state was stronger than they.
Republicans were left in the position of rejecting the only piece of constitutional progress (in the eyes of many nationalists or republicans) since the downfall of Stormont a decade earlier. As such, the agreement boosted the political approach advocated by the SDLP and contributed to the republican recognition, made explicit in the 1998 agreement, of the principle of consent as the basis of fundamental change of Northern Ireland's status. Within ten years, however, the IRA announced a (first) ceasefire, and both governments engaged in negotiation with the two sides to the Northern Ireland conflict, which eventually bore fruit in the Good Friday Agreement.
The agreement would also indirectly affect the outcome of the election of Charles Haughey as Taoiseach in the aftermath of the 1987 Irish General Election which resulted in a hung Dail. Independent TD Tony Gregory abstained in the vote for Haughey seeing Haughey as the "lesser of two evils" due to Gregory's opposition to the agreement along with his personal dislike for Fitzgerald. Haughey was elected Taoiseach on the casting vote of the Ceann Comhairle.
Read more about this topic: Anglo-Irish Agreement
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