Personally, I feel that the Good Friday Agreement was a success, more than it was a failure, therefore I am going to prove that it did solve long standing issues within the Northern Ireland Community.
Firstly, the Good Friday Agreement solved long standing issues over the ruling of Northern Ireland by introducing the Northern Ireland Assembly. This government was made up of well-respected politicians representing all beliefs. This ruling would not only give Northern Ireland a proper government which will help the country’s stability, but also it will help cease conflict because key decisions would be made, taking into account everyone, of all beliefs, meaning that there will be less discrimination against the minorities, that leads to anger and violence. Therefore, the Northern Ireland Assembly will contribute to lasting peace.
On the other hand, by 1999 the Assembly had still not appointed a cabinet as a result of the Unionists refusing to take part until the IRA decommissioned all their weapons. This tells us that the Agreement is therefore unstable, like other attempts at peace which failed like the Anglo-Irish Agreement, because if there are disagreements between the communities, this could prevent lasting peace.
Another issue that the Good Friday Agreement helped solve, was that of paramilitaries. It did this by announcing imprisoned paramilitary members would be released early. This helped discontinue violence because with the prisoners still being held, it would be impossible to move on, so in releasing the prisoners they were turning over new page and moving on from violence.
The agreement also planned to decommission the weapons of the paramilitary forces, which would bring an end to the gun fights and bombings. However, to avoid paramilitary’s humiliation, no lists or photos were to record what had been decommissioned. This aroused much suspicion of corruption and could have made a lot of people lose faith in the agreement, meaning it will not bridge the gap between the communities and therefore not solve the standing issues. As well as this, violence continued despite the decommissioning, with a series of bombings and shootings carried out by extremists from both sides who rejected the peace process, therefore I believe the Agreement did not manage to solve these problems.
Security and policing was another issue that the Good Friday Agreement needed to address. Before the Good Friday Agreement, the RUC and the B-Specials were feared by much of the Nationalists as a result of their discriminative acts towards the Nationalist communities. The Good Friday Agreement called for a complete reviewing of the policing in Northern Ireland, after which the RUC was disciplined and professional.
Despite this, the RUC were still not trusted by much of the Nationalist community, having suffered the prejudice of many supposed beating in the past. As well as this, many Catholics and Nationalists were reluctant to join the RUC in fear of facing harassment from Republicans. So, the Good Friday Agreement did make the policing better, but did not manage to gain the trust of the Nationalists, therefore not completely bringing an end to this area of trouble.
Having seen many violent clashes in the past, often resulting in deaths, marches were another aspect that had to be covered in the Good Friday Agreement. Despite occasional violence in orange marches, mainly due to their wanting to march through Nationalist territory, there was an improvement in the overall peaceful attitude of the marches. This was also helped by the newly reformed policing, who stood up to Loyalist marchers where they might have turned a blind eye in the past, an example of this was in Drumcree in 1998 and 1999.
Despite the improvement, the violence that continued was proof that the Good Friday Agreement had not completely solved the issue at hand. In 1998, during the Drumcree march, a police officer was killed after violent clashes between marchers and the RUC. This could be evidence that the Good Friday Agreement has not brought its aims of lasting peace.
The final matter contributing to the ‘Troubles’ that had to be dealt with was the Republican movement. After the Good Friday Agreement, Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, encouraged most republicans to express their views without violence. This made vast improvements, as the number of violent crime fell dramatically with the exception of the Omagh bomb. This event was the turning point of Republican extremism, there was no longer any sympathy or support for the terrorists; even the Nationalist and Republican communities were appalled.
Having said this, there were still plenty of people who were willing to fight for a full and separate Ireland, and these hardliners would carry on their violence to do this. Proof of this, was that however monstrous the bombings of Omagh and Enniskillen were, people were still hiding them, therefore the problem was not solved and lasting peace was still at question.
In conclusion, I believe that the Good Friday Agreement has solved many of the long standing issues that have contributed to the troubles. Mainly, by putting an end to paramilitary violence by decommissioning their weapons and releasing the prisoners, which although may cause upset and anger in the short term, will lead to lasting peace in the long term. The other successful aspect to the agreement, was giving Northern Ireland a proper, stable and objective government, so key decisions could be made fairly and to the best effect, giving Northern Ireland lasting peace and prosperity. Having said this, there is still room for improvement, for example, firstly, and in my opinion most importantly, paramilitary violence must be discontinued by creating a fair and objective rule system, and in doing so taking away the reasons for bitterness between the communities and their reasons to use force. This will allow proper discussions to be carried out so all voices can be heard and considered in the decision making process, leading to a more peaceful and prosperous future.