ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the rationale for the new approach. It will allude to the failure of the endogenous initiatives and emphasise the ensuing alterations to the international system and their impact on Anglo-Irish relations. The chapter is concerned with the view from Dublin, London, Washington, and Brussels than (to quote Winston Churchill) "the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone". It explains the reasons not for this growth but, rather, for the psychological impact of such economic success on a small off-shore economy and, in particular, the consequences for its relationship with its more powerful neighbor to the east. The chapter argues that constitutional policy has changed and that Anglo-Irish relations have been modified accordingly. Constitutional policy changed direction. Following a series of prime ministerial summits beginning in May 1980, the British and Irish governments signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA). Constitutional policy in relation to Northern Ireland had to pay obeisance to both the endogenous and the exogenous sources of conflict.
