Sectarianism is also a big problem; these are problems such as the Holy Cross dispute which is as much to do with politics as it has to do with religion. Segregated housing in Northern Ireland, makes this hard to change, many people feel safe with people the same as themselves around them. Nationalists protest against Orange men walking through catholic areas. Nationalists see this as triumphalism whereas unionists see this as their culture. In the summer months there is almost always rioting because of these marches. Re-routing these marches becomes a large issue. The sectarian divide is deepening the political divide and making a consensus between the UUP and the SDLP difficult. The recent election shows that Northern Ireland is more divided now than it was in 1998.
Security is one of the largest problems inside this issues there are many smaller issues. The loss of the name and symbols of the RUC and the introduction of 50/50 recruitment into the police service has angered unionists. In the 1920’s the RUC emerged as a mainly Protestant force, this was because the IRA targeted Catholics when they joined. Many Catholics did not recognise the new state and rejected the RUC from the beginning. Unionists are angered by the loss of the RUC because of the IRA campaign against them which lasted from 1969-1994.
Decommissioning was expected by 2000 by the Good Friday Agreement however it didn’t happen until October 2001 and it was not full decommission. There have been two further acts of decommissioning since most recent was at the end of October 2003. Unionists were angered by this and didn’t believe that the IRA would decommission because of the past activity of the IRA during “The Troubles” and their 30 year long violent campaign which made it difficult for unionists to trust them. The IRA also said that they were ending their violent campaign but since the agreement they have been involved in activities in Columbia were 3 IRA men were put on trail for helping terrorists. In October 2003 IRA were accused of having spies in Stormont this again undermined unionist trust. Demilitarisation is another security issue; Sinn Fein and IRA believe progress has been too slow whereas unionists believe that it should not go ahead because there are still security threats. Pasts examples of this would be Sinn Fein believe that British troops should leave Northern Ireland because they want Ireland to have independence from the British. Unionists think that there is still a tradition amongst Republicans of fighting the British and think that this is still a threat.
Another issue which has made it hard to implement the Good Friday Agreement is emotive issues. Emotive issues are those which make people think about the past problems and which contain civilian killings. These types of issues are the hardest to deal with as people remember those who died in the RUC or who were killed by paramilitary sources. Some examples are Prisoner release, Drumcree, Holy Cross dispute and internment. Prisoner release is a highly emotive issue as it is the release of criminals under the Good Friday Agreement, the prisoners include those which my have killed my people, this angers many people. Many emotive issues from the past still are on people’s minds today as many people were killed such as Bloody Sunday and Bloody Sunday. The IRA issued and apology for all the civilians they killed, this angered unionists as they didn’t apologise for the policemen and army soldiers who were killed.
In conclusion I think that there are many reasons why the agreement has been hard to implement. It has a lot to do with religious and political ideas becoming closer together. I believe that if in future we want to move ahead we need to forget about the past.
