Downing Street declaration

A joint agreement between the British and Irish governments, made in 1993, intended to provide the basis of a peace initiative in Northern Ireland. The declaration was made by British and Irish prime ministers John Major and Albert Reynolds, and recommended closer co-operation over Northern Ireland affairs, taking further the initiatives of the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement.

The Downing Street Declaration was a joint declaration issued on December 15, 1993 by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, John Major and Albert Reynolds, the Taoiseach (prime minister) of the Republic of Ireland. It affirmed the right of the people of Northern Ireland to self-determination, and that the province would be transferred to the Republic of Ireland from the United Kingdom if and only if a majority of its population was in favour of such a move. It included for the first time in the history of Anglo-Irish relationships, as part of the prospective of the so called Irish dimension, the principle that the people of the island of Ireland as a whole has the right, without any outsider interference, to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent.

The declaration, after it was 'clarified' sufficiently by the Northern Ireland Office, was considered sufficient by the Provisional IRA to announce a ceasefire on August 31, 1994 which was then followed on October 13, by an announcement of a ceasefire from the Combined Loyalist Military Command.