The IRA What it is and what it stands for I.R.A. stands for Irish Republican Army. It was formed to fight against the British for

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The IRA

What it is and what it stands for

I.R.A. stands for Irish Republican Army. It was formed to fight against the British for independence in the early twentieth century. It never accepted the way Ireland was divided into North and South in 1922: the IRA thinks that the whole of Ireland should be independent because that's what the majority of Irish want. It tries to bring this about by force; but because it's not very big it has to use terror rather than open war.

When the present Troubles began around 1968 the IRA split: the really war-minded members broke away to form the Provisional IRA. But even the Provisionals are now negotiating for peace. There are other splinter-groups which don't want peace talks of any kind: these include the Irish National Liberation Army and the Real IRA.

Good Friday Agreement

The Belfast Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998, a Good Friday, hence its unofficial title of the Good Friday Agreement. Former US Senator George Mitchell, Canadian General John de Chastelain, and the Finnish ex-Prime Minister Harry Holkerri chaired the multi-party talks.

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The participants included the governments of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom and eight political parties representing unionist, loyalist, nationalist, republican and cross-community constituencies in Northern Ireland. The US President Bill Clinton provided political support and encouragement.

Two other parties, Rev Dr Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and Bob McCartney's United Kingdom Unionist Party (having first contributed to the multi-party talks beginning in June 1996 that lead to the Agreement) boycotted them in protest at the presence of Sinn Féin who entered the multi-party negotiations in September 1997. Their voluntary exclusion meant that 43 per cent of the ...

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