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Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Lord Lexden reflects on the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985:
SIR – Margaret Thatcher was a passionate Unionist, deeply committed to retaining Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. Yet in 1985 she signed an Anglo-Irish Agreement which gave Dublin a direct, guaranteed say in Ulster's affairs. Since then its role has grown significantly.
This was at odds with her convictions. She was brought to it by irritation, nearly despair, with Unionist politicians who throughout her premiership bickered among themselves so much that she was unable to establish an effective, practical relationship with these natural allies.
"Margaret will be a great Unionist Prime Minister," Airey Neave told me when I was his political adviser. That was shortly before his murder in 1979. It is tragic that events in Northern Ireland thwarted this prediction.
Lord Lexden
London SW1