Border could ‘fade away over 50 years’

William Whitelaw, former British deputy prime minister and the first Northern Ireland secretary, believed power-sharing in the region could lead to a united Ireland, newly declassified State papers reveal.

The senior Tory figure, one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest and most loyal lieutenants, was central to brokering the Sunningdale Agreement in 1973, the first scuppered attempt to establish a cross-party executive.

In a private conversation with then Irish ambassador to London Noel Dorr in 1987, Mr Whitelaw said he could foresee the significance of the Irish border waning in the future.