voices of '74: consequences 2/2
Taking the analysis further, the following section provides an insight into the diversity of perspectives on key questions on how this pivotal episode should be interpreted: Why did the Sunningdale experiment fail? Was it a missed opportunity for Northern Ireland? What does the idea that the 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement was ‘Sunningdale for slow learners’ really mean?
'I think what prevented it succeeding was that the, despite some unionists willing to reach out and make Northern Ireland governable and, share power, there were still too great of a force of unionists and loyalists who had not reached that point and were not going to let it work at that time.'
Bronagh Hinds
'I don't know if it was an opportunity missed or not because at the end of the day is it right, that if you elect 40 members of one party and ten of another, that the ten of the small party has the same say as the 40. No, I don't think so.'
Jim Roddy