However, on the other hand the Unionists reaction was against the idea of power-sharing as they did not want the Republic of Ireland interfering in Northern Ireland.
Due to this reaction, the idea of power-sharing failed. On May 1974 group of Unionists went on strike to protest about the council of Ireland. There was a lot of support for the strike- as a result power-sharing was defeated and NI was back under direct rule from Britain. Even though this idea failed there was a sense of trust and compromise started to come from the Nationalist which show if it continues in this way then there won’t be another Bloody Sunday in the future.
In 1985 there was an Anglo-Irish agreement, this was agreed by the British and Irish Prime ministers-Margaret Hatcher and Garret Fitzgerald. This agreement is to bring both parties together and compromise with each other; this is done by setting up regular meeting between the Northern Ireland secretary and the Irish foreign secretary to discuss about Northern Ireland and there would be also cross boarder cooperation on security, legal and political issues and as a result, there will be a own civil service with equal numbers of Nationalists and Unionist, which will cause less hatred between them because they will have to compromise & trust each other.
After this the British government accepted that one day there might be a united Ireland-But only if the majority of people in NI voted for it. In reply to this, the Irish government accepted partition - But also accepted that partition would become permanent if the majority of people in NI voted for it as well.
The reaction to this is that the SDLP thought the agreement had potential – at least it gave the Republic of Ireland some say in what happened in Northern Ireland. However, Sinn Fein rejected the agreement because they were more unionists than nationalists in NI and if this came to a vote the Unionists would win and partition would become permanent. For the Unionists the reaction was against this agreement
as they did not want the Republic of Ireland having a say in the government of NI.
This agreement therefore, failed because Paramilitary violence continued which undermined what the agreement was trying to achieve – peace. Even if this failed it brought a little trust and compromise between both the parties and shows that bloody Sunday might not happen in the future.
In 1993 there was a Downing Street Declaration – the aim was of this is to set up a new form of government in Northern Ireland. This should be done by making Nationalists and Unionists working together, this would be good idea because in this way there trust would improve. However, only parties that rejected violence would be allowed to take part in the talks and this therefore, ruled out Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists Party (DUP).There was also another rule which was that it was agreed that that the Irish Nation would be united if the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to be united with the Republic of Ireland. For that reason, the Irish government recognised this and agreed to accept Northern Ireland as part of Britain.
The Nationalists reaction to this is that the ordinary people saw peace as priority and Sinn Fein began to lose the support of moderate Nationalists. The Unionists reaction was that the ordinary people saw peace as priority.
This idea failed because Sinn Fein and the DUP would not accept the Declaration.
Even if this Declaration failed there was some trust building between both the parties and some politicians and paramilitaries began the slow process of working towards an end to violence.
In 1998 there was a Good Friday agreement, this would mean that there would be a new Northern Ireland assembly which would be set up and it will have 108 members with equal numbers of both Nationalists and Unionists. There was also to be a review of policing in Northern Ireland and the RUC would be replaced with a new police force made up of equal numbers of Nationalists and Unionists. There was a promise made, which indicated that early release of paramilitary prisoners,
The Nationalists reaction to this was that majority of people were ready to negotiate and compromise and even some paramilitary were ready to end the conflict. And to the Unionist reaction was the same as they were ready to negotiate and compromise and even some paramilitary were ready to end the conflict.
The therefore, did not fail, in a vote of 94% of people in the Republic of Ireland and 71% of the people in the North voted in favour of the Good Friday agreement. So finally the Nationalists and Unionists did start to work and trust with one and each other.
In 1998 The Good Friday agreement was seen as a success; however since 1998 the Northern Ireland assembly had been suspended 4 times. Each time power sharing was suspended and Northern Ireland was one again ruled from London. The elections were to be held in May 2003, but they were postponed because of the IRA failure to decommission it’s and lack of clarity over the IRA’s future plans. After, the UUP insisted that power sharing could only be restored once the IRA were clearly committed to ending their terrorist activities. In October 2003 IRA made a 3rd act of decommissioning their weapons-over seen by a neutral observer and Sinn Fein restated its commitment to peace.
The elections result in November 2003 show that the two extreme groups DUP (Unionists) and Sinn Fein (Nationalists) won control of the Northern Ireland assembly. As a result was in danger of collapsing and Northern Ireland would yet again be ruled by London.
Therefore, as a result of the 2003 elections the Good Friday agreement is to be renegotiated because many Unionists feel betrayed by the British government. But while the DUP and Sinn Fein were unwilling to compromise Northern Ireland was still under direct rule from Britain.
In 2006/07 there was a new St Andrews Agreement, and the agreement was between the British and Irish Government and the political parties of Northern Ireland, which also includes the DUP and Sinn Fein. This agreement was an attempt to finally transfer power to Northern Ireland. The results of this were the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Nationalists were happy. On 8 May 2007 there was a formation of a new Northern Ireland Executive-power sharing and a decision by Sinn Fein to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland, courts and rule of law.
The commitment by the DUP to power-sharing with republicans and nationalists in the Northern Ireland Executive, this was agreed by the Unionists.
The Unionists reaction to this was that they accepted that Ireland should be ruled by Northern Ireland. This was same to the Nationalists reaction because they agreed as well to this. The agreement therefore, succeeded.
Overall I think that Bloody Sunday will not happen again in the future because as long Ian Paisley lives there won’t be any more hassle about this, however Ian Paisley is very old and could soon be dead. Also, all this time the trust was starting to build within the Unionists and the Nationalists and therefore, they Bloody Sunday won’t happen again.
