GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT

1. Context

2. What is the Good Friday Agreement?

• The Good Friday Agreement was signed on April 10, 1998, between factions of Northern Ireland, and the governments of Britain and Ireland, to end decades of violence in Northern Ireland among those who wished to remain with the United Kingdom (UK) and those who wanted to join Ireland.
• The negotiators included then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, then-Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, George Mitchell, a former Democratic senator who acted as the envoy of then-US President Bill Clinton, and eight parties from Northern Ireland.
• Northern Ireland was created in 1921 and remained part of the UK when the rest of Ireland became an independent state.
• This created a split in the population between unionists, who wish to see Northern Ireland stay within the UK, and nationalists, who want it to become part of the Republic of Ireland.
• The Good Friday Agreement is based on the idea of cooperation between communities.

3. Historical Perspective of Northern Ireland Conflict

• Geographically, Northern Ireland is part of Ireland. Politically, it is a part of the United Kingdom.
• Ireland, long dominated by its bigger neighbor, broke free about 100 years ago after centuries of colonization and an uneasy union.
• Twenty-six of its 32 countries became independent, Roman Catholic majority countries. Six counties in the north, which have a protestant majority, stayed British.
• Northern Ireland's Catholic minority experienced discrimination in jobs, housing, and other areas in the Protestant-run state.
• As a result, people on both the Catholic and Protestant sides formed armed groups that escalated the violence with bombings and shootings.
• By the 1990s, after secret talks and with the help of diplomatic efforts by Ireland, Britain, and the United States, the combatants reached a peace deal.
• The 1998 Good Friday accord led to the cooling down of the armed struggle and established a Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government for Northern Ireland.
• The question of Northern Ireland's ultimate status was postponed. It was decided that it would remain British as long as that was the majority's wish. But, the scope of the referendum was not sidelined.

4. What were the terms of the Good Friday Agreement?

• By the mid-1990s, momentum for peace was building. In April 1998, the negotiators gathered at Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast.
• Eventually, a deal was thrashed out, which many believe is deliberately ambiguous on several fronts.
• It is in a way allowed all groups to stick to the points most precious to them while agreeing on ending violence.
• Thus, Northern Ireland would remain part of the UK but could join Ireland if, in a referendum, a majority of people on both sides voted for it.
• People born in Northern Ireland could have Irish or British nationality or both.
• Weapons by paramilitary groups would have to be decommissioned, but people in jail for violence so far would be released.
• Northern Ireland would get a new government, where both the nationalists and unionists would be represented.
• This devolved government would sit at Stormont and have powers over most local matters, while the UK government would look after security, foreign policy, tax laws, immigration rules, etc.
• On May 22, 1998, a referendum was held in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the agreement was approved by 94 percent of voters in Ireland and 71 percent in Northern Ireland.

5. What is the current status of this agreement?

• After Brexit, Northern Ireland became the only part of the UK to have a land border with an EU country the Republic of Ireland.
• Checks are required on goods transported between the UK and the EU's markets.
• But both sides agreed this should not happen on the Irish border, to protect the Good Friday Agreement, because it was feared the cross-border cooperation could be threatened if new checkpoints were set up.