Page "Edward Heath" Paragraph 35

The 1973 Sunningdale Agreement, which proposed a power-sharing deal, was strongly repudiated by many Unionists and the Ulster Unionist Party who withdrew its MPs at Westminster from the Conservative whip, The proposal was finally brought down by the Loyalist Ulster Workers ' Council strike in 1974.

Much of what was contained in the Sunningdale Agreement found its way into the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which was once described by the then deputy leader of the SDLP, Seamus Mallon, as " Sunningdale for slow learners ", a reference to the failed power-sharing deal of 1973.