ABSTRACT
The proposals were designed to appeal to various parts of the electorate. Crucially, while there was support in all places for some of the proposals, it was enormously difficult to maintain cross-community support for the package as a whole. This too was a pattern which was to reassert itself regularly. Thus the vast majority of Catholics boycotted the so-called 'Border Poll', a Northern Ireland-wide referendum held in March 1973, when 97.8% of those voting, representing 57% of all electors, indicated a wish to remain within the United Kingdom. At the same time, many Unionists baulked at proposals for an institutional Irish dimension.
