Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, is a political settlement aimed at bringing peace to Northern Ireland. The governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland and representatives of the main parties to the Northern Ireland conflict reached the agreement on April 10, 1998. This date was the Friday before Easter, so the settlement became known as the Good Friday Agreement.
Political unrest and violence have plagued Northern Ireland for many years, especially since the 1960’s. Irish nationalists, most of whom are Roman Catholic, want Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland. Unionists, most of whom are Protestant, want it to remain part of the United Kingdom. Both nationalists and unionists have resorted to violence from time to time in support of their cause, resulting in thousands of deaths.
Terms of the agreement.
The Good Friday Agreement gave the people of Northern Ireland the right to decide their region’s political status. Under the agreement, Northern Ireland will remain part of the United Kingdom as long as a majority of its citizens want it to be. But it will become part of Ireland if a majority ever vote for that in a referendum.
As part of the settlement, the United Kingdom repealed the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, which had divided Ireland. Also, the Republic of Ireland removed a claim to the territory of Northern Ireland from its constitution.
The Good Friday Agreement created several new governing bodies designed to balance recognition of the unionists’ British national identity with the Irish identity of the nationalists. A new Northern Ireland Assembly, with elected representatives of both the nationalists and the unionists, was created to govern the region. The North-South Ministerial Council brings together government representatives from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to administer policies that concern the entire island of Ireland. The British-Irish Council brings together the national governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as the governments of the various parts of the United Kingdom.
The peace settlement required the decommissioning (surrender or destruction) of weapons by both unionist and nationalist paramilitary forces. A paramilitary force is a military organization that is not a part of a country’s official armed forces. The settlement also called for the release of certain prisoners associated with paramilitary groups. It required the United Kingdom to reorganize the region’s police forces to represent the makeup of the communities they patrol. It also required that British armed forces in Northern Ireland be reduced to a level normal for peaceful conditions. In addition, the settlement stated the intention to create new laws on equality for communities and individuals and new protections of human rights.
History of the agreement.
The Good Friday Agreement came four years after a cease-fire was declared by the nationalist Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland. The settlement was endorsed in referendums in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Parliament of the United Kingdom wrote the agreement into law in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. In 1999, the British and Irish governments signed the British-Irish Agreement, a treaty that included the parts of the Good Friday Agreement pertaining to the two countries.
The new governing bodies began meeting in December 1999. Since then, disputes between nationalists and unionists in the power-sharing government have led the British government to suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly several times. Unionists remain deeply divided over the merits of the agreement, but Irish nationalists widely support its provisions.
