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The Good Friday or Belfast Agreement was signed at Easter 1998 and marked a new way forward for Northern Ireland politically. It was a controversial deal and is still being fought over today.  It did however, bring the intense 3 decade conflict to an end and paved a political way forward for Northern Ireland based on the principles of power sharing. 

The Agreement was signed by the main Northern Ireland political parties. including the SDLP, Sinn Fein, UUP and Alliance party. The one group who clearly did not agree was the DUP who opposed the Agreement as a 'sell out'. They still took their seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly but they were determined to bring it down from within. 
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The Good Friday agreement was to fulfill THREE STRANDS:
  1. An agreed form of Power Sharing was to be agreed on 
  2. North South links with the Republic of Ireland were to be built in to the agreement 
  3. There was to be some form of East West links between the countries of the British Isles. 
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AP Photo - Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern
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  • Unionists were deeply divided by the Agreement. Only 54% of Protestants voted in favour of the Agreement at the Referendum. Many remained to be convinced.
  • The (UUP) Ulster Unionist Party under the leadership of David Trimble signed up to the Agreement. They were at that stage the largest Unionist party by a large margin. The Agreement saw many in the party and many of their voters unhappy about the agreement. Some key members of the UUP were so opposed to the agreement that they changed parties to the DUP. Two of the most famous are Arlene Foster and Jeffrey Donaldson. 6 of the UUP's 10 MP's opposed the Agreement. 
  • Large numbers of Ulster Unionist supporters began to vote for the DUP in future elections, making it the largest and most dominant Unionist party. 
  • The DUP deeply opposed the agreement and aimed to bring it down from within - by refusing to cooperate once their members were elected. 
  • Unionists were particularly angry at the amount of areas within the agreement they were expected to compromise on. They were angry at reform of the RUC. They were deeply frustrated about prisoner releases - and the heroes welcome many received on their release. They felt that there was little given in return. Decommissioning of weapons for example did not happen until 2006 - 8 years after the agreement. 
  • Unionists who opposed the Agreement set up the Ulster Unionist Campaign to demonstrate against the Agreement. Their slogan was 'The right to say no' 
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UUP leader David Trimble found it increasingly difficult to sell the Agreement to Unionists. His party and his supporters were slowly leaving..
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Unionists were increasingly frustrated with concessions like prisoner releases
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  • PIRA announced that despite the agreements on prisoners and the PSNI it would not decommission as the agreement 'fell short of its expectations' This was to become a huge stumbling block and undermined Unionist support very quickly. It would eventually decommission its weapons in 2006. 
  • Sinn Fein agreed to take part in the new Northern Assembly. This was a big decision as it 'recognised' the northern state. It had previously refused to recognise what they had called 'the Partitionist Parliament'  It had to change its constitution to allow its members to take up seats in the new Northern Ireland Assembly. 
  • It did however remain deeply suspicious of the Policing and justice system seeing the PSNI as simply the RUC under a new name. Again it would take until 2007 until Sinn Fein would fully support the Justice system. 
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Sinn Fein were much more successful in keeping their party united. Picture source: GETTY IMAGES
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On 22nd May 1998 there were two referendums in Ireland.
  1. One in Northern Ireland was on acceptance or otherwise of the Good Friday Agreement
  2. The other in the Republic of Ireland was on acceptance or not of the Good Friday agreement as well as changes to the Constitution of Ireland. 
WHAT WERE THE RESULTS?
  • 71% of those in Northern Ireland voted in favour of the Good Friday Agreement. 97% of nationalists voted in favour; Unionist support was only about 54%
  • In the Republic of Ireland nearly 95% voted in favour of the Agreement and constitutional changes. 
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© J Wishart / Rita Morgan 2017-18