Belfast Agreement

The Agreement, most often referred to as the Belfast Agreement ( _ga. Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste; _sc. Belfast Greeance) or the Good Friday Agreement ( _ga. Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta) ( _sc. Guid Fridæ Greeance), and occasionally as the "Stormont Agreement", was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process. It was signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998 (Good Friday) by the British and Irish governments and endorsed by most Northern Ireland political parties. On 23 May 1998 the Agreement was endorsed by the voters of Northern Ireland in a referendum. On the same day, voters in the Republic of Ireland voted separately to change their constitution in line with the Agreement. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was the only large party that opposed the Agreement.

Provisions

The Agreement's main provisions included the:
* principle that any change to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland could only follow a majority vote of its citizens;
* commitment by all parties to use "exclusively peaceful and democratic means";
* establishment of a Northern Ireland Assembly with devolved legislative powers;
* "cross-community" principle for any major decision taken by the Assembly;
* establishment of a 'power-sharing' Northern Ireland Executive, using the D'Hondt method to allocate Ministries proportionally to the main parties;
* establishment of a North-South Ministerial Council and North-South Implementation Bodies to bring about cross-border cooperation in policy and programmes on a number of issues;
* establishment of a British-Irish Inter-governmental Conference (replacing the former Anglo-Irish Inter-governmental Conference, established by the Anglo-Irish Agreement [ [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/aiadoc.htm Article 2, Anglo-Irish Treaty] ] ), which gave a consultative role to the Republic of Ireland concerning matters not devolved.
* establishment of a British-Irish Council, comprising representatives from the governments of Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man;
* conditional early release within two years of paramilitary prisoners belonging to organisations observing a ceasefire.
* establishment of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
* establishment of a two year time frame for decommissioning of paramilitary weapons;
* repeal of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 by the British Parliament. [ [http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/hamlyn/ni98.htm Northern Ireland Act 1998 ] ]
* abolition of the Republic of Ireland's territorial claim to Northern Ireland via the modification of Articles 2 and 3 of its constitution. As a result, the territorial claim which had subsisted since 29 December 1937 was dropped on 2 December 1999; [ [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/docs/da21299.htm Address by Mr David Andrews, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs at the Exchange of Notifications ceremony at Iveagh House, Dublin, 2 December 1999] ]
* introduction of legislation governing policing, human rights and equality in Northern Ireland
* normalisation of security measures, e.g. closure of redundant army bases.
* reform of the police led by the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland;
* equality of social, economic and cultural rights of all ethnic communities e.g. official recognition of the Irish and Ulster Scots languages;
* recognition of the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose; and
* confirmation that the right to hold both British and Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland.

The Agreement also marked the end of a dispute between the two states over the names of their respective states: the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" and "Ireland". Vague wording of some of the provisions (described as "constructive ambiguity"), which helped ensure acceptance of the agreement at the time, served to postpone debate on some of the more contentious issues — most notably paramilitary decommissioning, police reform and normalisation. A date of May 2000 was set for total disarming of all paramilitary groups. This was not achieved and delayed the establishment of the Assembly and Executive, because one of the four main parties in the Assembly — Sinn Féin — was "inextricably linked" to the largest paramilitary group, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and unionists refused to share power with this party, while the IRA remained armed.

The Assembly and Executive were eventually established in December 1999 on the understanding that decommissioning would begin immediately, but were suspended within two months due to lack of progress, before being re-established in May 2000 as Provisional IRA decommissioning eventually began. Aside from the decommissioning issue, however, ongoing paramilitary activity (albeit relatively low level compared to the past) by the Provisional Irish Republican Army — e.g., arms importations, smuggling, organised crime, "punishment beatings", intelligence-gathering and rioting — was also a stumbling block. The loyalist paramilitaries also continued similar activity although as they were not represented by a significant political party, their position was less central to political change.

The overall result of these problems was to damage confidence among unionists in the Agreement, which was exploited by the anti-Agreement DUP which eventually defeated the pro-Agreement Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the 2003 Assembly election. The UUP had already resigned from the power-sharing Executive in 2002 following arrests of Sinn Féin personnel on charges of gathering intelligence for use by terrorists. (These charges were eventually dropped in 2005 on the controversial grounds that pursual would not be "in the public interest". Immediately afterwards, one of the accused a Sinn Féin member, Denis Donaldson was exposed as a British agent.)

In 2004, negotiations were held between the two governments, the DUP, and Sinn Féin on an agreement to re-establish the institutions. These talks failed, but a document published by the governments detailing changes to the Belfast Agreement became known as the 'Comprehensive Agreement'. On 26 September 2005, however, it was announced that the Provisional Irish Republican Army had completely decommissioned its arsenal of weapons and "put them beyond use". Nonetheless, many unionists, most notably the DUP, remained sceptical and agreement on how to restore the power-sharing assembly still had not been reached as of July 2006. Of the loyalist paramilitaries, only the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) had decommissioned any weapons. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/238229.stm BBC News | Latest News | Paramilitary arms destroyed ] ]

As of summer 2007, a Power Sharing Executive has again been established to govern Northern Ireland in devolved matters. The second Northern Ireland Executive consisted of the DUP and Sinn Féin, with the Rev. Dr. Ian Paisley of the DUP as First Minister and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin as Deputy First Minister. Although Dr. Paisley was the head of the government, he and Martin McGuinness held equal powers within the Northern Ireland Assembly government.

Dr Paisley, getting on in years, retired from the office of First Minister and from the leadership of the DUP on 5 June 2008 and was succeeded in both functions by Peter Robinson. In the third Northern Ireland Executive the same political relationship now exists between Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness as existed formerly between Dr Paisley and Mr McGuinness.

Referendums

In May 1998, there were separate referendums concerning the Belfast Agreement The referendum in Northern Ireland was a direct vote on the Agreement while the vote in the Republic of Ireland was a vote to amend the Irish constitution in line with the Belfast Agreement.

The result of these referendums was a large majority in both parts of the island of Ireland in favour of the Agreement.

In the Republic only 85,748 (3% of the electorate) voted 'No' but approximately 40% of the electorate did not exercise their franchise.

In the North, when normal combined voting strengths among both nationalist and unionist communities are superimposed on the Referendum result, it is clear that pre-polling opinion polls and exit polls on the day were correct in showing that a majority of the unionist voters voted 'Yes'. The DUP claim to have been at that point 'a majority of the majority' was clearly difficult to substantiate although in later events they succeeded in so becoming.

In the Republic of Ireland the electorate voted upon the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. This amendment both permitted the state to comply with the Belfast Agreement and provided for the removal of the 'territorial claim' contained in Articles 2 and 3. The Republic of Ireland voted upon the Amsterdam Treaty on the same day. The results of the two simultaneous referendums on the Belfast Agreement were as follows:

ee also

*Northern Ireland Act 1998
*Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
*St Andrews Agreement
*Northern Ireland peace process
*Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland
*Independent International Commission on Decommissioning
*Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains
*Commissioner for Victims and Survivors of the Troubles
*Sunningdale Agreement
*Anglo-Irish Agreement

References

External links

* [http://www.standrewsagreement.org The St Andrews' Agreement] The latest attempt to restore devolution to Northern Ireland
* [http://www.northsouthministerialcouncil.org/ North-South Ministerial Council/An Chomhairle Aireachta Thuaidh/Theas]
* [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/docs/agreement.htm Belfast Agreement] (full text)
* [http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Comhaont%C3%BAArTh%C3%A1ngthasAirSnaCaibidl%C3%ADIlph%C3%A1irt%C3%AD.pdf Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste] (full text, in Irish)
* [http://www.britishirishcouncil.org/ British-Irish Council]
* [http://www.usip.org/fellows/reports/2006/0706_farry.html Inside Out: An Integrative Critique of the Northern Ireland Peace Process] U.S. Institute of Peace July 2006
* [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/docs/da21299.htm Address given at the Exchange of Notifications ceremony, whereby Ireland dropped its territorial claim to Northern Ireland, Iveagh House, Dublin, 2 December 1999]