Has the Good Friday agreement meant that Northern Irelands problems are over?

The Good Friday agreement was signed in April 1998, its aims were to reduce conflict in Northern Ireland and bring back peace. One of the most important parts of this agreement was a Power Sharing Assembly. This was devolution of power to Northern Ireland, which began on December 2nd 1999. They elected 108 members by Proportional Representation. This means that the amount of members from each political party will be in proportion to how many votes that party received. This was important because before this, votes were gerrymandered so Protestants were always in the majority, whereas now, both Protestants and Catholics had equal rights for voting. Other parts to the Good Friday agreement included the decommissioning of terrorist weapons, reform of the ‘Royal Ulster Constabulary to stop persecution from the mainly Protestant police force and the release of paramilitary prisoners. This was hopefully the start of equal rights for everybody in Northern Ireland.

When the vote for the Good Friday agreement was held, 71% of people voted for it. The vast majority of people wanted peace and communication and it was mainly the hard-line unionists who were against the agreement, as they had had the power of the Catholics. The IRA apologised to the families for the loss of loved ones during violence. This was a major breakthrough although they refused to hand over their weapons.

There have been some other positive developments since 1998 the L.V.F started to hand over weapons to be destroyed, and the IRA haven’t said they ...