What Led To The Good Friday Agreement

The IRA renewed its ceasefire on 20 July 1997, paving the way for Sinn Féin to be included in the inter-party talks that had begun under Mitchell`s presidency. However, the question of dismantling remained and the British and Irish governments tried to give the problem instead of letting it derail again. As a result, hardliner Ian Paisley`s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) left the talks and never returned. The DUP refused to make concessions to Northern Ireland`s constitutional position or negotiate with Sinn Féin, which it considered terrorist. Although deeply dissatisfied, the more moderate UUP remained in the talks. Given the DUP`s stated desire to break off talks, Mitchell later wrote in his memoirs that their decision to leave had actually helped the process of reaching a deal. However, this is expected to have a lasting impact on Northern Ireland`s policies, as the DUP`s opposition to the Good Friday Agreement has severely hampered its implementation. Sinn Féin entered the all-party talks on 15 September 1997 after signing the Mitchell Principles. Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Féin Republican Party, and his deputy Martin McGuinness, who would later become Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, played a key role in the deal.

John Morrison explains his journey as members of the Provisional IRA to Sinn Féin leaders. The vague wording of some provisions, called „constructive ambiguity“[8], helped ensure acceptance of the agreement and postponed debate on some of the most controversial issues. These include paramilitary dismantling, police reform and the standardisation of Northern Ireland. The agreement was formally reached between the British and Irish governments and eight political parties in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and the Alliance Party. The DUP was the only major political faction that opposed it. Three strands of new institutions were defined in the agreement: the agreement reaffirmed a commitment to „mutual respect, civil rights and religious freedoms for all in the community“. The multi-party agreement recognised „the importance of respect, understanding and tolerance with regard to linguistic diversity“, in particular with regard to the Irish language, the Ulster Scots and the languages of other ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland, „all of which are part of the cultural richness of the island of Ireland“. These issues – parades, flags and legacy of the past – were negotiated in 2013, under the chairmanship of Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Meghan L. O`Sullivan, professor at Harvard Kennedy School and now a member of the CFR Board of Trustees. The talks, which involved all five major political parties, failed to reach an agreement, although many proposals – including the creation of a historic investigative unit to investigate unresolved deaths during the conflict and a commission to help victims obtain information about the deaths of their loved ones – were a large part of the Stormont House deal reached in 2014. The agreement provided for a complex set of provisions in a number of areas, including: the overall result of these problems was to damage trade unionists` confidence in the agreement, which was exploited by the anti-deal DUP, which eventually overtook the pro-deal Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the 2003 general election.

The UUP had already resigned from the executive power-sharing branch in 2002 after the Stormontgate scandal in which three men were accused of gathering intelligence. .