The Good Friday Agreement (or Belfast Agreement) was an important political development in the peace process in Northern Ireland. The agreement was reached on 10 April 1998 between the Irish and British governments and eight political parties in Northern Ireland, and voters across Ireland subsequently approved the agreement in two referendums on 22 May 1998. In April 1916, the Easter Rising rocked Dublin when a group of Irish nationalists announced the creation of an Irish republic and clashed with British troops in the capital. The uprising, which resulted in the loss of 450 lives and destroyed much of central Dublin, was put to an end by the British within a week. However, the mood of the public changed considerably when the 15 leaders of the uprising were executed by british authorities in May 1916. Executions and the imposition of martial law fueled public resentment against the British. The next five turbulent years, including the Irish War of Independence (1919-21), led to the end of British rule in most parts of Ireland. The vague wording of some provisions, described as “constructive ambiguity”[8], helped to ensure acceptance of the agreement and served to postpone debate on some of the most controversial issues. These include the dismantling of paramilitaries, police reform and the standardisation of Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement (Irish: Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste; Ulster-Scots: Guid Friday Greeance or Bilfawst Greeance[1], is a pair of agreements that were signed on September 10. It was signed in April 1998 and ended most of the violence of the Troubles, a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had taken place since the late 1960s. This was an important development in the peace process in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. Northern Ireland`s current system of devolved government is based on the agreement.

The Agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. In the context of political violence during the unrest, the agreement committed participants to “exclusively democratic and peaceful means of settling disputes over political issues.” This has taken two aspects: the British Government is effectively out of the equation, and neither the British Parliament nor the people have the legal right under this agreement to hinder the achievement of Irish unity if it had the consent of the peoples of the North and the South. Our nation is and remains a nation with 32 counties. Antrim and Down are and will remain as much a part of Ireland as any county in the south. [20] Gerry is also the author of “The Escape: The inside story of the 1983 escape from Long Kesh prison,” published in 2013. The IRA renewed its ceasefire on 20 July 1997, paving the way for the inclusion of Sinn Féin in the inter-party talks that had begun under Mitchell`s presidency. However, the issue of dismantling remained and the British and Irish governments tried to obscure the issue rather than let it derail the process again. This led to Ian Paisley`s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leaving the talks and never returning. The DUP rejected the idea of making concessions to Northern Ireland`s constitutional position or negotiating with Sinn Féin, which it considered terrorist. Although deeply dissatisfied, the more moderate UUP remained in the talks. Given the DUP`s stated desire to break off talks, Mitchell later wrote in his memoirs that their decision to withdraw actually helped reach an agreement. However, this is expected to have a lasting impact on Northern Ireland`s policy, as the DUP`s opposition to the Good Friday Agreement has seriously hampered its implementation.

Sinn Féin entered the multi-party talks on 15 September 1997 after signing the Mitchell Principles. During negotiations on the UK`s planned withdrawal from the European Union in 2019, the EU produced a position paper on its concerns about the UK`s support for the Good Friday Agreement during Brexit. The position paper covers issues such as the avoidance of a hard border, North-South cooperation between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the birthright of all northern Irish residents (as defined in the agreement) and the common travel area. [31] [32] Anyone born in Northern Ireland and therefore entitled to an Irish passport under the Good Friday Agreement can retain EU citizenship even after Brexit. [33] Under the European Union`s Brexit negotiating directives, the UK was asked to convince other EU members that these issues had been raised in order to enter the second phase of Brexit negotiations. But LGBT and reproductive RIGHTS, for example, were not on the agenda at the time. .