Garret FitzGerald and Margaret Thatcher at the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, flanked by then tanaiste Dick Spring (left) and UK foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe. It was the farthest out they could contemplate — Noel DorrFor Dorr, however, the 1985 is but one chapter, if an important one, in the centuries-old Anglo-Irish relationship. To really understand The Troubles, you must go back much further,” he says. Noel Dorr, former secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish ambassador to London, at his home in Dublin. He needed almost a crusade to help him, to say, ‘Give us a chance, we have now a fair settlement’,” Dorr says.

Source: The Irish Times November 16, 2025 21:01 UTC