The Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998. Its main provisions were that: the principle that the constitutional future of Northern Ireland should be determined by the democratically expressed wish of its people; a commitment by all parties to 'exclusively peaceful and democratic means’; the establishment of a Northern Irish Legislative Assembly; a 'Power-sharing' Executive, made up from the main parties in proportion to their strength in the Assembly; a set of 'North-South Bodies' to bring about cooperation in government policy and programmes on a number of issues; a British-Irish Council, composed of representatives from the governments of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man to discuss areas of common concern; release within two years of paramilitary prisoners belonging to organisations observing the ceasefire; a two year target for decommissioning of paramilitary weapons; the modification of the Irish 'constitutional claim' to Northern Ireland; legislation for Northern Ireland on policing, human rights and equality. This agreement was good because, while there was little that totally pleased someone there was something fore everyone that made the Agreement viable in the way of compromises.
The Good Friday Agreement was base on the experience learnt from the 3 previous agreements, the power sharing executive and Sunningdale Agreement(1973), the Anglo – Irish Agreement(1985) and the Downing Street Declaration(1993). The main points of the Sunningdale Agreement were to undermine support for the IRA, give the Nationalist community a say in Northern Island, stop Nationalists turning to the IRA and to offer peaceful help to Catholics in Northern Island. It failed mainly because of a Unionist strike encouraged by Loyalist paramilitaries, MP’s resignations and the continuation of Direct Rule.
Following the attack on a Brighton hotel that almost killed Mrs. Thatcher in 1984, the Anglo – Irish Agreement was initiated to try and stop the IRA’s campaign of violence. This failed because the violence did not stop and the IRA was still active.
The Downing Street Declaration was to stop extremist groups on both sides and to please the ordinary civilians that wanted a stop to violence. It also failed because the violence didn’t stop. From these failures it was possible to realise that one reason that the previous agreements had failed was that they did not include the paramilitaries in the talks, by including them violence could be drastically decreased. This was good but for one problem, extreme unionists did not want to be part of talks with Sinn Fein and the IRA, seeing them as terrorists not interested in peace or agreement but only in violence and conflict.
The role of key individuals played an important part in the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement. Mo Mowlam helped secure friendship and cooperation with the IRA through visiting paramilitary prisoners. US Senator, George Mitchell helped through his avocation of peaceful means as did Bill Clinton, US President who also made it clear that there were financial incentives to peace through investment in Northern Ireland. Tony Blair helped by allowing more time extensions on the deadline for the agreement when it was first being set up and facilitating its smooth running now it is operational.
The International community became interested in Northern Ireland mainly because of Americas supplying of weapons to the IRA. The American Republican movement was mainly a core of hardliners that supported the IRA but was (thankfully) not a mass movement. Most Irish Americans wanted an end to violence in Northern Ireland. The European Union helped by investing in Northern Ireland and helping to improve community relations.
It is important to remember that most people in Northern Ireland led normal lives and did not become extremists. In fact many people tried to get involved by voting for political parties that rejected violence or getting got involved in Peace Movements. The role of ordinary people in Northern Ireland also helped pave the way to peace. People like Betty Williams (Peace People) and Gordon Wilson (daughter was killed in Enniskillen bombing) tried to increase understanding between communities.
The attitude of religious and political factors, I believe, was the main point that made it possible for the signing of the agreement to go ahead. The politicians were relatively calm and no major incidents had happened recently. Religious attitudes were starting to accept partition and view it as, not a ‘necessary evil’, but one which was ‘here to stay’. Because of this and the fact that people were not at each other’s throats the level of understanding and acceptance was high enough to allow the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement.
In conclusion, as I said earlier in my essay, I believe that the most important point is that the attitudes of politicians and the church were ‘chilled out’ enough to allow the signing of the agreement.
