Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

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?

Extracts from this document...

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.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Northern Ireland 1965-85 section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related GCSE Northern Ireland 1965-85 essays

  1. The History of Conflict in Ireland.

    And I came away overwhelmingly with the sense that if there were psychopaths in there, they were very, very difficult to discover; that they were people who really believed that they, in fact, belonged to a higher moral plane than the rest of us, because they were prepared to lay

  2. Why has it been difficult to obtain peace in Northern Ireland?

    is still a lot of prejudice and anger between the Nationalist and Unionist. Nationalists look back at events such as Bloody Sunday or the Battle of Bogside with hatred towards Unionists and Unionists will do likewise, it is very difficult for the people involved to forget the past and forgive their opponents.

  1. The Real IRA

    The rIRA's goals may have some religious force behind them, but it does not seem to be the number one reason for their attacks (Religious). What is the reason? One may never know what drives a terrorist group to do what they do, but the only way to do anything is to prevent it.

  2. Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems need to ...

    In the early 1980's until 1984, the-then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher held regular meetings with Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Charles Haughey and then Garret Fitzgerald. However, PM Thatcher was nearly killed, in an IRA bombing, in 1984. This resulted in a fresh attempt at peace.

  1. How has Northern Ireland changed since the Good Friday Agreement, and what previous attempts ...

    Therefore, the Good Friday Agreement has had some positive effects, but many issues are still unresolved. Possibly the greatest term of the Good Friday Agreement was the reformation of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which meant that Northern Ireland could rule themselves, making it a much fairer; the unionists were very happy about this.

  2. Explain why the marching season in Northern Ireland still causes tension between the two ...

    and France (1789). They felt that these revolutions had overthrown bad governments and given freedom to people like them. The group had some important successes, for example, in 1792 Catholics were allowed to be lawyers and in 1793 they gained the right to vote.

  1. Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need ...

    Decommissioning and Elections in 1996 was another step towards to the Good Friday Agreement. The 'Mitchell Principles' were created by Senator Mitchell; it was a plan for achieving decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. Sinn Fein agreed to this but the IRA did not and did not give up their weapons.

  2. Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need ...

    The British government accepted the Irish unity was an issue for Irish people, but said that it could only happen with the consent of those in the North. The British Government also said it has no selfish political or economic interest in Northern Ireland, but was concerned only with the welfare of all the people of Northern Ireland.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work