Northern Ireland Coursework What attempts at peace have been made and how much left is there to do?

Background to the Downing Street Declaration 1993 Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein had series of meetings with John Hume of the SDLP This was an attempt to end the killing

Moves towards Peace The British PM John Major and the Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds produced the Joint Declaration for Peace in December 1993 The idea was to include Sinn Fein and representatives of the Protestant paramilitaries

The Declaration Talks would take place to decide a new form of government for Northern Ireland Only parties which rejected violence would be part of the talks British government said that possible unity for Ireland would be decided by the Irish A Forum for Peace and Reconciliation would be set up to promote trust and understanding

Chances of success? Sinn Fein were losing support in elections Catholics and Protestants both started to vote for the SDLP Thousands attended peace rallies after the Shankill bombing The new Irish President argued that peace & justice in the North was more important than removing Partition

Chances of success? (2) Sinn Fein described the Declaration as ‘very disappointing’ Ian Paisley accused John Major of having ‘sold out Ulster to buy off the fiendish republican scum’ Summer of 1994 saw the sectarian killings continue But some politicians and paramilitaries seemed to be working towards peace

The Good Friday Agreement Signed 10 th April 1998 Multi-party talks took place representing all political opinion Strand 1 of the Agreement deals with how Ulster will be ruled Strand 2 deals with Ulster & the Irish Republic Strand 3 deals with Ireland & the UK

Agreement at last? Agreement showed high level of agreement between the different political parties 71% in the North & 94.% in South voted for the agreement

The Omagh Bomb 29 people died and 100s more hurt August 15 th 1998 Attack was by the Real IRA Had the effect of making people more determined than before to get peace

What problems still remain? Every August the Orange Order march This causes tension between the 2 communities The most well known example of these is at Drumcree

What problems still remain?(2) Recently there was trouble at the Holy Cross School Children at a Catholic primary school had to be protected by the police

What problems still remain? (3) Paramilitary groups like the IRA and the UDA have a huge number of weapons There is argument over destroying (‘decommissioning’) these weapons