'What has the Belfast Agreement of Good Friday, 10 April 1998, achieved?'

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Charlotte Lavin.

‘What has the Belfast Agreement of Good Friday, 10 April 1998, achieved?’

‘The peace process aimed to bring the conflict to an end through a process of negotiation that would put in place a settlement capable of commanding

widespread agreement and the allegiance of all it’s citizens’

After extensive talks the Belfast Agreement (or the Good Friday Agreement as popularised by the media) was created bringing a historic return to devolution for Northern Ireland.  It established a governmental structure based on the three strands laid down by Peter Brooke, the former Secretary of State.  It was also hoped that the agreement would bring about legitimacy and stability to the Northern Ireland situation (as pointed out in the opening quote).  But also pave the way for reform on many issues such as policing, decommissioning, and normalisation.

Perhaps most importantly the agreement was successful in bringing about legitimacy for a new government in Stormont.  It was more representative of the whole society not only with the introduction of the Proportional Representation voting system, but also the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights, thus protecting the rights of the minorities previously unseen in other agreements.  Though it could be argued that this system favours group rights at the expense of ‘individual’ right and is guilty of entrenching sectarism into the powersharing executive.  This problem has come to light again recently over the re-election of David Trimble to first minister.  The Women’s Coalition in an effort to ensure the re-election put it to the assembly successfully re-designated two of their members to provide Mr Trimble with an extra Unionist vote; he needs the majority of both Nationalist and Unionist votes to be re-elected.

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It has provided a compromise between the two communities; both take different things from the Belfast Agreement.  For Unionists it is seen as a recognition of the union with Britain by the Nationalists e.g. Sinn Fein joining the power sharing executive.  They also gained the repealing of Articles two and three in the Irish Constitution, which was an historical step, as it was not mentioned in previous agreements like Sunningdale.  So too was the Northern Ireland Act of 1998 for Nationalists.  Under the agreement the creation of the North/South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council could have been seen ...

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