The second attempt was the Northern Ireland Assembly that was set up in 1982. This was another good idea but again the timing was wrong causing this attempt to fail. In 1982 Catholics refused to attend the assembly as in 1982 members of the IRA were being arrested and imprisoned without trial. They were angry and went on hunger strikes. They wanted to be held as political prisoners. Many of these men died and Catholics were angry with the British Government for not stopping this. In 1982 Sinn Fein was set up, as the Political wing for the IRA. Catholics from working class areas, such as Belfast or Derry, were supporting this. It was the British governments fault to an extent as they allowed the hunger strikes and the torture in the prisons to continue.
In 1985 the Anglo-Irish agreement was set up. This was an Agreement between the Republic of Ireland and Britain. This was the first time that Eire and Britain had worked together for peace; this had to happen for peace to happen. The reason why it took so long for an agreement of this sort to happen is because of the ‘troubles’ between Eire and Britain in the past, like the 1919 – 21 Civil war, 1939 – 45 World War Two and when in 1949 Eire declared its independence. This all ended in 1985. It was an agreement to set up a joint committee of the two governments so they could discuss the future of Northern Ireland, the Security forces and Justice and the law in Northern Ireland. They wanted to find a way to persuade Unionists and Nationalists to respect each other’s views. Protestants believed that Britain was letting the south have a say in the running of Northern Ireland, this made them angry. The British Government is partly to blame, as it could have prevented the bad relations with Ireland in the past.
The Downing Street Declaration in 1992 was the fourth attempt to resolve the ‘Irish Troubles’. This was when John Major declared that all peaceful parties would be included in peace talks. This declaration even included Sinn Fein. After months of internal debate the IRA on 31st August announced that there would be a cease-fire. Shortly after the Loyalist paramilitaries also declared a cease-fire. This cease-fire did not lead to immediate progress in Northern Ireland. The British Government claimed that nothing could happen until they knew that this cease-fire was permanent. The IRA became annoyed at how long it was taking the British Government to make a decision on how to take their weapons out of service. The IRA said that the cease-fire was now over and exploded a bomb in London, causing two people to be killed. The government is not to blame for this as the terrorist cease-fire took so long to set up, and the IRA did not continue the cease-fire that it had claimed it was on. A terrorist cease-fire took four years to set up.
The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a result of peace talks and the Northern Ireland Assembly was set up. The DUP didn’t join in with these peace talks and it claims “no surrender”. The British Government is getting more successful at dealing with the ‘Irish Troubles’; it has sometimes used the wrong timing to put changes into action however this is partly the government’s fault as it allowed groups to develop and one-party rule to continue. The Good Friday agreement has been the most successful attempt so far, as it has lasted the longest, but it has also had its failures as at the moment the Northern Ireland assembly is suspended. Overall I would say that the government had little success before 1985, but it has had more success since then because it is prepared to work with more groups, like Eire and Sinn Fein, instead of trying to deal with the problems alone.
