PARIS: Between 1968 and 1998, the British territory of Northern Ireland was torn apart by a conflict pitting Catholic nationalists seeking civil rights and reunification with the rest of Ireland against majority Protestant supporters of continued union with Britain.
The three-decade Troubles, which were marked by street battles, bombings, summary executions and internment without trial, claimed the lives of over 3,500 people before the signing of a landmark peace deal on April 10, 1998 known as the Good Friday Agreement.
AFP looks back at key milestones in the peace process, beginning in 1994, when the Catholic guerrilla group, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), which violently opposed British rule, called an end to its 25-year insurgency.
1994: The guns fall silent
Various peace initiatives by the British and Irish governments in the 1970s and 1980s fail to end the IRA’s bombing campaign in northern Ireland and in Britain or the endless cycle of tit-for-tat paramilitary attacks.
After years of secret talks with moderate nationalists, and the intervention of US President Bill Clinton, who woos the leader of the political wing of the IRA, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, by granting him a US travel visa, the IRA in August 1994 calls a ceasefire.
The announcement causes rejoicing on the streets of Belfast.
Two months later, loyalist paramilitaries also announce a truce.
1995: Talk first or disarm first?
The euphoria caused by the ceasefires fizzles as the parties squabble over the conditions for allowing Sinn Fein to take part in multi-party talks on northern Ireland’s future.
The unionist camp and Britain’s Conservative government want the IRA to disarm first. The IRA refuses, seeing such a move as tantamount to surrender.
As the negotiations stall, the IRA ends its ceasefire in February 1996 by planting a huge bomb in London’s docklands that kills two people.
1997: Enter Blair
The peace process gains new momentum in May 1997 when Tony Blair sweeps to power at the head of a Labour government.
Unlike his Conservative predecessor John Major, Blair is not politically dependent on support from the unionists, giving him more freedom to make concessions to the nationalist camp.
Very quickly he scraps decommissioning as a precondition for negotiating with Sinn Fein.
In July 1997, the IRA calls a new ceasefire and Sinn Fein takes its seat at the negotiating table.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of firebrand preacher Ian Paisley, which sees union with Britain as non-negotiable, promptly storms out.
1998: Historic deal
On April 10, 1998, Britain, Ireland and the main political parties in northern Ireland except the DUP sign the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement.
The accord, signed on the Christian holiday of Good Friday, leads to a semi-autonomous northern Ireland with a power-sharing assembly, led by a first minister and deputy first minister from either side of the unionist/nationalist divide.
The deal recognises the right of the people in Northern Ireland to determine their future. Crucially for unionists, the Irish Republic renounces its historic claim to rule all of Ireland.
The deal also calls for phased disarmament of all paramilitary groups, the gradual withdrawal of British troops from northern Ireland and a reform of the territory’s police force, accused of collusion in violence against Catholics.
A month later, voters resoundingly endorse the agreement in referendums held both in northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
Four months later the peace is shattered by IRA dissidents, who plant a car bomb that kills 29 people in the town of Omagh — the single worst atrocity of the Troubles.
But the attack has the effect of invigorating rather than endangering the peace process. – AFP
