The 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement comes at a particularly tense time when the realities of Britain’s departure from the EU have complicated an already complex situation
AFP
In this file photo taken on April 10, 1998, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R), US Senator George Mitchell (C) and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern pose for a photograph after signing The Good Friday Agreement.
10 April 2023 marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which brought to an end the 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland known as ‘the Troubles.’ The region sadly remains politically unstable.
The power sharing government that the agreement introduced has been suspended since February 2022, the latest in a long list of shutdowns. In fact, Stormont, the home of the government and other power sharing institutions, has been shut down for nine of the past 25 years, indicating the continued divisions that plague the province.
The anniversary comes at a particularly tense time when the realities of Britain’s departure from the Europe Union in 2020 have added a new complication to an already complex situation. Some, inevitably, have argued that the GFA may need revising to overcome what seems like perennial impasses that the agreement helped bring about.
However, though the agreement was clearly flawed, its achievements should not be downplayed. A seemingly intractable conflict was largely overcome. While over 3,500 people were killed during the Troubles, the number of similar, “security related deaths,” since the GFA is under 200.
In this file photo taken on September 21, 1969 soldiers watch school children passing barricades erected during sectarian clashes in Belfast.
A generation of young people have now grown up in a mostly peaceful environment, something their parents never enjoyed. Divisions may persist and work still needs to be done, but the GFA remains an impressive and historic achievement.
Though the GFA agreement was clearly flawed, its achievements should not be downplayed. A generation of young people have now grown up in a mostly peaceful environment, something their parents never enjoyed. Divisions may persist and work still needs to be done, but the GFA remains an impressive and historic achievement.
The 'Troubles' begin
Northern Ireland owes its existence to British colonialism. The English first conquered Ireland in the 12th century but increased its interest under Henry VIII and his successors 400 years later.
To counter the overwhelmingly Catholic Irish population, which England's Protestant rulers believed would be disloyal, London commandeered large tracts of native land and gave it to English and Scottish Protestant settlers in the northern Ulster province of Ireland.
In time, these Protestants formed a large and powerful community in Ulster, committed to the continuation of the Union of Great Britain with Ireland.
Irish nationalists, however, had other ideas, and fought the British who had oppressed the Catholic majority for centuries. After a brutal war of Independence, London agreed to depart, but the Protestant 'Unionist' community of Ulster demanded to remain with Britain.
This led to the partition of Ireland in 1921, creating an Irish Free State in most of the island, which later became the Republic of Ireland, and a new region, 'Northern Ireland', which covered most of Ulster and remained a part of the United Kingdom.
While the new Northern Ireland had a Protestant, Unionist majority, there was a sizeable Catholic community who would have preferred for the province to remain part of an independent Ireland.
Many Unionists feared these Catholic 'Nationalists', believing they were plotting to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic, and so endeavoured to exclude them from real political power and systematically discriminated against them.
In time, this provoked resentment and frustration from the Nationalist community, erupting into a significant protest and civil rights movement in the 1960s.
In this file photo taken on January 30, 1972 a British soldier drags a Catholic protester during the "Bloody Sunday" killings when British paratroopers shot dead 13 Catholics civil rights marchers in Londonderry.
The Unionist police force often met these protests with violence, as did armed unionist paramilitaries like the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) that had formed to, in their view, protect Protestant communities and Northern Ireland's status in the Union.
Some Nationalists also turned to violence, with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) forming in 1969 with the goal of uniting Ireland. Militants on both sides stepped up their campaigns of violence, with bomb and gun attacks targeting opposing communities, followed by reprisal attacks.
The Troubles had begun.
Bloody Sunday
The British government responded by sending its army to retore order in 1969, but it was soon seen as an arm of the Unionist supremacy, especially after its soldiers shot dead 14 unarmed Nationalists at a peaceful rally in 1972, known as Bloody Sunday.
In this file photo taken on March 2, 1972, in Londonderry, young Catholic rioters hurl projectiles at British soldiers during a rally protesting the 30 January "Bloody Sunday" killing by British paratroopers of 13 Catholics.
Despite wanting Northern Ireland to deal with its own problems, London got sucked deeper into the crisis. In 1972 it concluded that the Unionist-controlled parliament and prime minister that had ruled the province since 1921 were unable to restore order and so suspended the office and imposed direct rule from London.
In 1972, Britain imposed direct rule from London. During this period, violence became a part of everyday life, with extra-judicial killings, mass incarcerations, roadblocks, car bombs and massacres becoming commonplace from the 1970s into the 1990s.
While this was intended to be temporary, it lasted until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. During this period, violence became a part of everyday life, with extra-judicial killings, mass incarcerations, roadblocks, car bombs and massacres becoming commonplace.
The IRA extended the violence to mainland Britain, launching a series of bomb attacks on civilian, military and commercial targets from the 1970s into the 1990s, in an attempt to force London to negotiate.
The Good Friday Agreement
While London officially insisted it would not negotiate with IRA 'terrorists', backchannels had been open for some time, through the Irish government and Northern Irish Nationalist politicians. These were stepped up in the 1990s under the Premiership of John Major, eventually leading to both unionist and nationalist paramilitaries agreeing to a ceasefire in 1994.
This paved the way for a long-drawn-out peace process that lasted several years, despite the ceasefire breaking down at times.
The intervention of the United States greatly helped, with President Bill Clinton taking a personal interest, appointing Senator George Mitchell as Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, where he would later take a leading role in negotiations.
US President Joe Biden says peace in Northern Ireland was "not inevitable - we can never forget that"
He quotes ex-US senator George Mitchell, who was influential in brokering the peace deal, that there were "700 days of failure and one day of success"https://t.co/e1HnqNIeIcpic.twitter.com/RuOUpom5ul
Tony Blair, who was elected British Prime Minster in 1997, then reinvigorated the process, which had stalled somewhat, working with Northern Ireland's politicians and Irish Premier Bertie Ahern to move negotiations forward. Eventually leading Unionists and Nationalists, under Mitchell's mediation, reached an agreement on Good Friday 1998.
The agreement attempted to placate both Unionists and Nationalists. It kept Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom but said this could change in the future if the majority of the population wished it.
It allowed people born in Northern Ireland to have British or Irish citizenship or both. It created a new Northern Irish government that represented both communities. To avoid the Unionist domination of the past, it created an executive that had both Unionist and Nationalist representation.
- In this file photo taken on June 29, 1974 a little girl is seen in a street of the Belfast catholic area, looking at barbed wire, near a roadblock.
Moreover, as a safeguard, the First Minster and Deputy First Minister must have a Unionist and a Nationalist in either position, and if one quits, the other cannot stay in office alone.
On the security side, the British army agreed to scale back and eventually remove its presence, paramilitaries on both sides agreed to disarm, while people involved in violence were released from prison.
Under the agreement, the British army agreed to scale back and eventually withdraw, paramilitaries on both sides agreed to disarm, and people involved in violence were released from prison. The protestant dominated police force was dissolved and replaced by a new service that included more Catholic members.
A few years later the Protestant dominated police force, was dissolved, and replaced by a new service that included more Catholic members, though they remained under-represented.
The majority of Nationalist political parties endorsed the agreement, but the Unionists were split. The leader of the largest unionist party, David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party, became the first First Minister, but saw several defections by leading party members.
A rival Unionist party, the Democratic Union Party, led by Ian Paisley, was strongly against the agreement, seeing it as a betrayal of Northern Ireland's Protestant and British identity.
In this file photo taken on March 16, 1988 mourners hold flowers during the funeral of the three IRA's members killed in Gibraltar by British secret agents, in Belfast.
However, in the referendum that followed the Agreement, the Paisley-led 'No' campaign was soundly defeated, 71-29%. A simultaneous referendum in the Republic of Ireland changing its constitution from an explicit claim to the north to one that called for uniting Ireland if democratically expressed by the population, was passed by 94% of voters.
A flawed agreement?
Critics of the agreement have subsequently argued that the GFA was cloaked in ambiguity, allowing the different sides to see what they wanted to see. Key areas of disagreement remained and would repeatedly surface to derail the new political structures.
Critics of the agreement have subsequently argued that the GFA was cloaked in ambiguity, allowing the different sides to see what they wanted to see. Key areas of disagreement remained and would repeatedly surface to derail the new political structures.
Within 9 weeks after the new government was established in 1999, London suspended it due to slow progress on IRA weapons decommissioning. The same thing occurred several months later, while the issue caused Trimble to permanently resign in 2001.
London then suspended the government for five years in 2002 after Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, was accused of spying on the British government.
Despite being restored in 2007, Stormont was shut down again in 2017 when the Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister resigned, collapsing the government over the DUP First Minister's role in an energy scheme. Government was restored in 2020 but ended again in 2022 when the DUP walked out, this time over Brexit.
Some have argued that the GFA's trouble is that it provides a political, non-violent arena for divisions, rather than working to resolve or end them. Stormont is set up in a way that permanently pigeonholes parties and voters into either 'Unionist' or 'Nationalist' camps, rather than allowing for non-sectarian identities, based on political ideology to emerge and thrive.
Some have argued that the GFA's trouble is that it provides a political, non-violent arena for divisions, rather than working to resolve or end them.
One party, the Alliance, has seen some success, growing its representation as a non-sect-based group, aligned with neither the Unionists or the Nationalists. It is particularly popular among young people, many of whom grew up after The Troubles.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks marking the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in Belfast.
However, it is notable that the post-GFA politics has largely been dominated by the more extreme parties on both sides, with the DUP pushing out the more moderate UUP as the dominant Unionist party, and Sinn Fein pushing out the more moderate SDLP on the nationalist side.
With the GFA entrenching division, critics would argue it is unsurprising that divisive parties have come to dominate.
The Brexit factor
Britain's departure from the EU has added to these divisions. The UK and Ireland's shared membership of the EU was one of the cornerstones of the GFA.
The free movement of goods and people that EU membership brought meant that, once the Troubles were over and the British army's military checkpoints on the border dismantled, Northern Irish citizens could easily travel to or work in Britain or Ireland without much hindrance.
Britain's vote to leave the EU in 2016, and London's pursuit of a 'hard Brexit' that meant leaving the EU's Free Market and Customs Union put this in peril. While the GFA did not explicitly mention the border remaining open, the EU and the United States insisted that any Brexit deal between London and Brussels must not bring a hard border back to Ireland.
Instead, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of the Brexit deal, which would see a custom barrier established between Britain and Northern Ireland, allowing goods to flow unimpeded into the Republic and keeping the border open.
However, this in effect detached Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and outraged many Unionists, especially the DUP. The DUP had campaigned to leave the EU and had been promised by Johnson that there would be no customs barrier in the Irish Sea and felt betrayed, prompting their walkout from Stormont in 2022.
Recently Britain's new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has tried to resolve this by agreeing a new arrangement with the EU on Northern Ireland.
US President Joe Biden (L) amd British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (R) during a meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 12 April 2023.
This will mean that goods that are headed to Northern Ireland only will not be subject to customs in Britain, just those that are intended to travel on to the Republic. While this is still a customs barrier of sorts, it is hoped it will placate Unionist sensitives about feeling separated from the rest of the UK.
However, while it remains to be seen whether the DUP will accept this and return to Stormont, Brexit may have a more long-lasting effect on Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland as a whole did not vote to leave the EU, with 55% voting to remain while 44% voted to leave.
Like Scotland, the imposition of Brexit against the majority's will has ruffled a lot of feathers. Some militant nationalists have flirted with the idea of a return to armed struggle, but more significantly, more people than ever are attracted to the idea of uniting with the republic and rejoining the EU.
Like Scotland, the imposition of Brexit against the majority's will has ruffled a lot of feathers. Some militant nationalists have flirted with the idea of a return to armed struggle, but more significantly, more people than ever are attracted to the idea of uniting with the republic and rejoining the EU.
Indeed, a 2019 poll showed that, for the first time, a narrow majority backed uniting with Ireland, with younger voters especially supportive, whether Protestant or Catholic.
A peace, however fragile
Such a poll would have seemed unimaginable during the Troubles and shows the peace dividend that the Good Friday Agreement has allowed. While it was far from perfect and entrenched divisions in a destabilising way, it has largely managed to channel energy into politics rather than violence.
A comparison with the other peace process launched around the same time, between Israelis and Palestinians, illustrates the strides taken.
In the Middle East the two sides and their external allies ultimately stepped back from making difficult compromises, most notably at Camp David in 2000, and the result has been another generation of conflict and violence. In Belfast in 1998, in contrast, the players were willing to take a risk and make hard choices.
