The Council of Ireland may refer to one of two councils, one proposed and one implemented for a brief period.
1920 - Government of Ireland Act
The Council of Ireland contemplated by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, was to have been an all-Ireland body co-ordinating between the parliamentary governments contemplated for Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by that Act. The Anglo-Irish War prevented many provisions of the Act, including the Council, from ever actually being implemented, and the Anglo-Irish Treaty, while not calling for the formal repeal of the Act, resulted in practice deviating from that provided for in the Act, so that this Council never became operational. Many of the functions contemplated for it were actually handled by the short-lived Council created by the Sunningdale Agreement, implemented over a half-century later.
1973 - Sunningdale Agreement
The Council of Ireland was set up in 1973 to link Belfast, Dublin and London over common issues and concerns. The Sunningdale Agreement specified the details of the council, as had been worked out through negotiations between the parties of Northern Ireland and the British and Irish governments. The Council consisted of six Unionist ministers, four SDLP ministers and one minister from the Alliance Party. The Council collapsed the next year with the withdrawal of the Unionist members.
