There were several reasons why Margaret Thatcher brought this agreement in. One of the main reasons why is that both governments were increasingly worried about the continuing IRA violence, especially when in 1984 Mrs Thatcher was nearly killed by a bomb. The hope was that by involving the republic of Ireland then the IRA violence would decrease.
Overall the agreement was well received in most of mainland and Northern Ireland, while The Alliance felt it had possibilities where as Sinn Fein completely rejected it as they believed it would end in them losing Northern Ireland all together.
Margaret Thatcher’s idea of tackling the issue of violence through cross-border security worked to a certain extent. The amount of support for Sinn Fein and the IRA dropped significantly. Many of the nationalists were happy to return to the SDLP because Sinn Fein would not give the the agreement a chance they also felt that the agreement would bring a positive thing’s as it gave the entire republic a say in Northern Irelands affairs.
Unionists had a lot of anger towards the agreement and many went on strike and demonstrated against it. This caused them to clash with the Paramilitary and the RUC (police). Because of this clash 15 unionist MP’s resigned their seats, and in 1991 the UFF killed 31 people with a bomb.
The violence didn’t stop. Eight soldiers were killed by an IRA landmine in 1991. Also Loyalists killed 31 soldiers in 1991 as a revenge attack against the IRA.
A main reason for the violence not stopping was because Sinn Fein did not support the agreement which caused their close counterparts (IRA) to follow suit and revolt.
Unionists were not happy by the lack of support from the rest of Great Britain, but there were reasons for it. Britain felt that the unionists didn’t care at all that parts of England were being bombed. Because of this Britain showed no sympathy back to the unionists. Great Britain also had the feeling that the unionists were being unnecessarily unco-operative by refusing to even try out the agreement.
I believe this agreement was important to helping bringing peace, as it had made many people think twice about supporting a certain party, because they are less concerned about peace and more about arguing. There were times when they were further away from peace because of things like the negative attitude of Sinn Fein. But intern gives a positive spin because the acts of Sinn Fein made people move to the SDLP which are a peaceful party.
The Downing Street Declaration
Attempt 3
The idea of this agreement; set up by The Prime minister John Major and Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, was to try and stop violence through only allowing non violent parties to have a say. The British governments main aim was to have no political or economical interests, just to have an interest in the welfare of the people of Northern Ireland. They would hold talks to decide a new form of government for Northern Ireland. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s there was a terrible cycle of violence as loyalists began to match Republicans in the number of killings they carried out. Peace was being longed for by ordinary people, this is evident as Sinn Fein lost their west Belfast seat in 1992. Both Catholics and Protestants were voting SDLP. In 1990 Mary Robinson had been elected as the new Irish president she had hit the headlines. She believed very strongly in the fact that peace was very important. She thought peace was more important than removing partitions.
After all the talks on December 15th 1993 the result became clear it was the Downing Street Declaration. The Alliance Party welcomed the Downing Street Declaration and so did the SDLP. Ulster Unionists cautiously accepted it while Sinn Fein believed it was very disappointing.
By studying and clarifying the details of the declaration the Republicans and Loyalists paramilitaries delayed the acceptance of the declaration without actually refusing it. During this they still continued to fight and kill each other. In many events they even killed innocent people.
My views of the Downing Street Declaration are mixed, as I believed it did help move the idea of peace forwards. Mary Robinson was one of the main reasons for this as she was for peace rather than fighting. There was an opposition to the declaration, but both republicans and loyalists did not reject it. This meant that maybe they would accept it and things could begin to move forwards. Although they did not reject it the did continue to fight and kill each other. This obviously wasn’t very positive and pushed backward the peace effort.
The first paramilitary ceasefires was a great advance, and there was many advances in 1993, but 1994 didn’t start so well. Republicans wanted clarification of the Downing Street Declaration. This didn’t go down very well. Tensions built when us president Bill Clinton gave Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams a visa. This would allow him to meet with Irish American groups in the USA. The talk in America allowed new thoughts, and on August 13th the IRA announced a complete ceasefire. This was followed by a cease fire declared by the loyalist paramilitaries on 13th October. Christmas 1994 was one of the quietest for many years, people didn’t want to celebrate of the top as many ceasefires had come and gone in the past.
The Joint Framework Document and The Decommissioning of Weapons.
Attempt 4
The Joint Framework Document happened in 1995. the ceasefires had continued into February the next year. With this The Joint Framework Document could be published. It was written up by British and Irish governments. The document would set out a peace-process. Within it there would be a new assembly for Northern Ireland and a North-South council of ministers. They would have an influence over a range of issues. Over all The Joint Framework Document was accepted and in 1995 there was the lowest death tolls Northern Ireland had seen during the troubles. I think thing this was important as many people saw that there being fewer deaths might have meant that is more chance that this would carry one. The conflict had not yet been completely resolved, there were still issues. As the Unionist thought that maybe the plan for North-South Council of ministers could lead to a united Ireland. Unionists also wanted the IRA to decommission their weapons. Sinn Fein said that the IRA did not trust the British government. Families of violent paramilitary attacks would be also be upset because some of the criminals of the attacks were being released early from prison.
Peace was now looking possible even with this problem. Full support for the peace process was given from new leader of The Ulster Unionist Party. With help from former US Senator George Mitchell, they would work out a peace process helping decommission weapons and getting to a settlement which everyone could agree on.
In January 1996 Senator George Mitchell set out the ‘Mitchell Principles’. This was a set of plans which would achieve the decommissioning of all Paramilitary weapons. Sinn Fein agreed to the principles. But the IRA didn’t. they refused to hand over any weapons. Because of this the British government ordered there to be elections in Northern Ireland, nationalists were annoyed at his because it slowed down the peace process. The only reason for the elections was because Prime Minister John Major wanted to see how much support the paramilitary had.
In February the IRA detonated a huge bomb in London’s docklands. This was followed by one in Manchester in June. The violence continued in July when in Drumcree Catholic residents objected to an orange order march through their town.
Although there was all this violence the loyalists kept to their ceasefire and the elections in to the Northern Ireland forum took place without any violent incidents. The Forum was a new body, it title was the Northern Ireland Forum For Political Dialogue.
In 1997 a new Prime Minister was elected for the UK. His name was Tony Blair. Also in June Ireland got a new Taoiseach, Bertie Aherene. Dr Mo Mowlan was appointed by Tony Blair as the new Northern Ireland Secretary. She was admired by both nationalist and unionist politicians for her great ability to negotiate. Her job was difficult and she organised lots of events to encourage people not to associate Stormont with bitter memories.
In June there was more violence when loyalists and police clashed. The Orange Order voluntary called off their marches to ease tensions, this was a much praised move.
In July the IRA announced a new ceasefire which allowed Sinn Fein to take part in the peace process negotiations. But the IRA would not take part in any decommissioning of weapons. Unionists were still unsure whether to go into talks with Sinn Fein if the IRA still had weapons. The DUP pulled out of the process in September. But David Trimble didn’t pull out. Even though he wasn’t happy with all the aspects of the process he stayed with it. Also the republicans were divided over the process. In November some member of the IRA left as they did not support Sinn Fein’s participation of the peace process. Splinter groups were formed and known as the Real IRA and The Continuity IRA.
I think that the Joint Framework Document was one of the biggest moves forward in the peace process for a long time. Because of the help of Senator George Mitchell big steps were taken forward. He was very important as he had lots of experience as a negotiator and peacemaker. Also the lowest death toll will have brought ease to peoples minds.
I think that the Prime Minister John Prescott made a bad move when he decided to hold elections, this obviously upset people because it delayed the peace process. This bad move from the British government will not encourage them to support British ideas in the future.
After the IRA bombs I think people will have thought that maybe things will not get as good as they were before. The bombs had been one of the first in a long time to hit mainland England. With another hitting Manchester things got worse. Tempers were frayed and I think that the elections didn’t help, this wound people up. The retaliation was to take it out on the mainland cities.
The new Prime Minister I think was at first seen as a breath of fresh air. He had new ideas, one which was very important was to employ Mo Mowlan. This was a very good move as many people respected Mo Mowlan, she made many big steps forward to the peace process. Soon the IRA followed with a ceasefire. Once again did anyone know if this would last? But it did have a positive side as it allowed Sinn Fein to take part in peace negotiations. With the split of the IRA in to Splinter Groups (the Real IRA and The Continuity IRA) would there be conflict between them? The peace process would now be helped with more quarrels.
The Good Friday Agreement 1998.
The good Friday Agreement is the last of the peace initiatives I will talk about. The Good Friday Agreement had terms which aimed to bring peace. The first was to set up a new Northern Ireland Assembly (government) which would have 108 members, whereby the Nationalist and Unionist communities had to agree on all the decisions that were made. This was a positive move towards peace as it involved everyone, both sides would feel their views had been taken into account.
The Irish government agreed not to claim the North as its territory unless everyone agreed that they wanted it that way. I think that this was a fair decision to take but this only pleased the unionists as they wanted to be separate from the Republic.
There would be a complete review of the policing in Northern Ireland. This was also a positive move as the police had before been corrupt, with them favouring the unionists. With a new tern the law could be fair for both sides.
The last term was that there would be an early release for paramilitary prisoners. This meant that nationalists who had felt they had been unfairly convicted of paramilitary violence and put in prison could be released, with this release they would have a new found respect for the government. This obviously made the victims of paramilitary violence feel unjust.
1998 had started with some important events, in January there had been a crisis when Loyalist paramilitaries seemed to be about to withdraw their support for the peace process. This would have a major domino effect as they had a lot of power within their areas of influence.
After visists from Mo Mowlan and David Trimble in the Maze prison their support had been regained. From this moment it seemed like both loyalist and republic paramilitaries wanted to try and end the conflict. This was not the end as there were still splinter groups who rejected the peace process, their small groups were still prepared to fight and in February and March a series of bombing and shootings took place.
A deadline had been decided of April 9th. President Bill Clinton had been working behind the scenes. He had been encouraging many leaders to talk or compromise. From April 6th Tony Blair and Bertie Aherene and many other Northern Ireland Leader worked non stop. On Saturday 10th April an announcement was made that the political parties of Northern Ireland had made a compromise.
This was only the beginning as there was a referendum to be held in May 1998. This would ask the people of Northern Ireland whether they accepted articles 2 and 3 (claiming the North as part of the Republic) to be removed. The result in the Republic was overwhelming with 94%. But there was still a clear majority of 71 percent in
