British, Irish Reportedly Conclude N. Ireland Pact

Britain and Ireland today were reported to have concluded an agreement on troubled Northern Ireland that is sure to inflame Protestants who fear that it will be a first step toward reunification with the Catholic south.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet will meet Thursday to consider the agreement, an official said, and the Irish government of Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald in Dublin is expected to discuss the accord at the same time.

News reports said the Cabinet meetings could result in a signing ceremony as early as Friday.

Irish and British officials refused to comment on all reports, but leaked versions said it would give Dublin some kind of consultative entry into the affairs of Northern Ireland with an eye to winning greater confidence of Ulster’s Catholic minority.

Secretariat in Belfast

The key points of the agreement, according to the influential Irish Press newspaper, are:

--The setting up of an Anglo-Irish ministerial body, called a Conference, with a permanent secretariat of civil servants based in Belfast, giving Dublin a watchdog role in the running of the province.

--The agreement would be phased in rather than implemented overnight, and would be reviewed after three years.

--On security questions, there would be new procedures to investigate complaints by the Catholic-nationalist minority. The locally hired and predominantly Protestant Ulster Defense Regiment, seen by many Catholics as a sectarian force, may be subjected to tighter discipline.

--The agreement would be formally registered with the United Nations.

According to the Press, one of the main sticking points had been the siting of the secretariat.

1st Agreement Since 1921

Reports had indicated that the British government was reluctant to have the secretariat immediately based in Belfast, fearing that it could become the focus of anger among Protestants loyal to Britain who oppose any Dublin involvement in the north.

The two governments have not signed an agreement regarding Ulster since the 1921 partition of Ireland into the independent republic in the south and the six British-ruled counties in the north.

If confirmed, the accord will be the most ambitious since the short-lived 1974 Sunningdale agreement, with its power-sharing local executive backed by an Anglo-Irish ministerial council. That agreement collapsed in the face of an all-out strike by Protestant workers.

According to the Press report, the latest agreement includes a commitment by the British government to face up to any Protestant-Unionist reaction over Dublin’s role in the north.

The Protestant majority, mostly descendants of Scottish and English settlers who moved to the province 400 years ago, fear that any Irish presence there is merely the first step toward reunification with the predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland.