Emigration played ‘key role’ in Anglo-Irish Agreement

Garret FitzGerald used Ireland’s long history of emigration to gain an advantage over Margaret Thatcher during often tense negotiations over the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, his son has revealed.

Mon, 30 Jul, 2012 - 01:00

Garrett’s grandfather Patrick FitzGerald, a labourer, emigrated to London in the 1850s or 1860s. The great-grandfather of Ronald Regan, the president of the US at the time the Anglo-Irish agreement was signed, and a close ally of Thatcher, also left for London around this time, and afterwards migrated to the US.

Garret’s father Desmond, who was minister for external affairs after Irish independence, was born in London.

It was not widely known how influential Regan had been working on his father’s and Ireland’s behalf in persuading Thatcher, then British prime minister, into the Anglo-Irish Agreement, said Mark FitzGerald.

There had been regular telephone calls and consultations between his father and President Regan to help bring the agreement, which laid the foundations for the Good Friday Agreement 13 years later.

“Regan was a huge help to us in persuading Thatcher to sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement. She’d agree to anything Regan wanted. He [President Regan] helped Ireland in a big way,” said Mr FitzGerald.

His presentation was accompanied by slides of the old cottage in Tipperary and of Mr Regan and Dr FitzGerald together.

“Garett loved young people, he loved Fine Gael and loved politics,” Mr FitzGerald said.

“But, what would Garret say if he were here today?” he asked. “He would say the most important thing in politics is to have common high standards, while embracing different views. He would say challenge people, be curious. He always said don’t complain — do something.”

Garrett, born in 1926, and the third child of Mabel and Desmond, was known in the family as the reconciliation child, as the couple had taken different views on the Treaty, he also said.

In 1959, 50% of the people born in 1926, the year Garret was born, were no longer living in Ireland, having emigrated.

Today, Garret would “challenge protectionism and the high costs of the public service”, his son also said.

Dr FitzGerald established Young Fine Gael to create an avenue for young people to participate in politics, and it was in that spirit its summer school has been renamed after him, said Patrick Molloy, president of Young Fine Gael.