Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need to be overcome if the current peace talks are to succeed?
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Introduction
Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need to be overcome if the current peace talks are to succeed? The Sunningdale Agreement In Ireland there are two sides, the Nationalists and the Unionists. These two sides have shown hatred towards one another, since the 17th century. The Unionists believe that they should still have close links with Britain and the Nationalists believe that Ireland should be a Republic. Lots of government officials have attended peace talks to make a compromise, which both Nationalists and Unionist will agree on. I will be explaining to peace agreements and how both sides felt about them. The first negotiations for a peace settlement were made in 1973, which was called the Sunningdale Agreement. The IRA was not allowed in these talks as they refused to give up their weapons, as the talks were held to stop the violence and hatred in Ireland. ...read more.
Middle
The unionists believed if they took part in these talks, there would be a possibility the Northern part of Ireland would be again part of Ireland as a whole. This was a reason why the Nationalists were supporting this agreement. The Unionists leaders, had lost their support from the Unionists, and they resigned the Power-sharing Assembly, which made the peace negotiations collapse. The Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement was introduced by Tony Blair and Bertie Aherne they both thought the hatred in Ireland had to be stopped or at least minimised. In June there were violent attacks made by the IRA and Loyalists and police had a clash over the Domcree march. The Orange Order decided to cancel their parades to help relive the strain. The IRA had offered a new ceasefire; this meant that Sinn Fein could take part in the peace negotiations. But the Unionist was in two minds to talk over the peace agreements with Sinn Fein, while weapons were still possessed by the IRA. ...read more.
Conclusion
The problems that still exist are that one half of the IRA supports the agreement and the other half the Real IRA doesn't. The Real IRA is not prepared to give up their weapons. This indicates that they are not going to resolve this peacefully, but still rely on there violent methods. This would annoy the Unionist who is offering to resolve this issue peacefully and end it so that both sides can live with each other with out any violence or hatred. The release of prisoners would upset the Unionist as they will feel that the government has let them get away with there violent actions. The breakthroughs that have been made in the previous peace agreements are that the Nationalists and Unionist are prepared to talk about the problems and they will find the best solutions to bring peace. The talks stop as sides are continually blaming each other for something or another. Politicians could think of other ways in which groups will agree on peace. It should be more regular peace talks to think of new and better ways to bring peace to Ireland. ...read more.
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