The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement (Irish: Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste; Ulster-Scots: Guid Friday Greeance or Bilfawst Greeance),[1] is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had taken place since the late 1960s. This was an important development in the peace process in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. Northern Ireland`s current system of devolved government is based on the agreement. The Agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. In 2004, negotiations took place between the two governments, the DUP and Sinn Féin, on an agreement to restore the institutions. These talks failed, but a document published by governments detailing changes to the Belfast Agreement became known as the “Global Agreement”. However, on 26 September 2005, it was announced that the Provisional Irish Republican Army had completely decommissioned and “decommissioned” its arsenal. Nevertheless, many trade unionists, in particular the DUP, remained sceptical. Of the loyalist paramilitaries, only the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) had decommissioned weapons. [21] Further negotiations took place in October 2006 for the St Andrews Agreement.

This is because the Good Friday Agreement reached complicated agreements between the different parties. The three strands of the pact created a network of institutions to govern Northern Ireland (Orientation One), to bring together the leaders of Northern Ireland with those of Ireland (Strand Two or North-South Cooperation), and to bring together leaders from across the United Kingdom and Ireland (Strand Three or East-West Cooperation). There are currently more than 140 areas of cross-border cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, including health services, energy infrastructure and policing. Many experts and political leaders fear that any interruption in this cooperation will undermine confidence in the agreement and thus in the foundations of peace in Northern Ireland. Under that agreement, the British and Irish Governments undertook to hold referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic on 22 May 1998 respectively. The referendum in Northern Ireland is expected to endorse the agreement reached in the multi-party negotiations. The purpose of the referendum on the Republic of Ireland was to approve the BRITANNICO-Irish Agreement and to facilitate the amendment of the Constitution of Ireland in accordance with the Agreement. The direct London regime ended in Northern Ireland when power was formally transferred to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, the North-South Council of Ministers and the British-Irish Council when the regulations entering into force of the British-Irish Agreement entered into force on 2 December 1999. [15] [16] [17] Article 4(2) of the United Kingdom-Ireland Agreement (Agreement between the British and Irish Governments implementing the Belfast Agreement) required both governments to notify each other in writing that the conditions for the entry into force of the United Kingdom-Ireland Agreement were fulfilled. Entry into force should take place upon receipt of the last of the two communications.

[18] The British government agreed to attend a televised ceremony at Iveagh House in Dublin, the Irish Foreign Office. Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, attended early in the morning of 2 December 1999. He exchanged views with David Andrews, Ireland`s foreign minister. Shortly after the ceremony, at 10.30.m., the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, signed the declaration formally amending Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution. He then informed Dáil that the British-Irish Agreement had entered into force (including certain agreements additional to the Belfast Agreement). [7] [19] The result of these referendums was a large majority in both parts of Ireland in favour of the agreement. In the republic, 56% of voters voted, with 94% of the vote in favour of the constitutional amendment. Turnout in Northern Ireland was 81%, with 71% in favour of the deal. In addition to the number of signatories,[Note 1] Stefan Wolff mentions the following similarities and differences between the issues dealt with in the two agreements:[28] The old text contains only four articles; it is this short text that is the legal agreement, but it includes the latter agreement in its annexes. [7] Technically, this envisaged agreement can be distinguished as a multi-party agreement as opposed to the Belfast Agreement itself. [7] The agreement provided for the establishment of an independent commission to examine police provisions in Northern Ireland, “including ways to promote broad Community support” for these agreements […].