Timeline: Long road to Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement
On April 10, Northern Ireland will mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended three decades of conflict in the British-ruled province.
The following are some key developments in the history of the province and the peace process:
1921 – Ireland is partitioned, with the southern 26 counties becoming the independent Irish Free State, which later became the Republic of Ireland, and the northern six remaining under British rule. The new Northern Ireland parliament, in Stormont outside Belfast, is dominated by pro-British Protestant ‘unionists’, who would control it for the next 50 years.
1968 – A civil rights campaign by Catholics protesting discrimination gains momentum. Sectarian riots break out in Belfast, Londonderry and elsewhere.
August 1969 – As civil unrest worsens, British troops are deployed for the first time.
March 30, 1972 – As violence mounts, the trade union government in Stormont refuses to hand over responsibility for public order to the central government. Stormont has been suspended and direct administration from London imposed.
9 December 1973 – After a year of talks and elections for a new Northern Ireland Assembly in June, the Sunningdale Agreement is announced, establishing a power-sharing government in Belfast. Unionists object to elements of the deal designed to promote cooperation with the Republic of Ireland.
May 1974 – Power-sharing collapses amid hardening unionist opposition, violence and a general strike and resumption of direct rule.
March 1, 1981 – Bobby Sands, leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Maze Prison, refuses food and begins another hunger strike by Republican prisoners demanding “political” status. Ten of them would starve themselves before the strike is called off in October.
11 April 1981 – Sands is elected Member of the UK Parliament in Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-elections. He dies on May 5.
November 15, 1985 – Britain and Ireland sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the most significant development in relations since partition. Both agree that Northern Ireland’s status will not change without the consent of the majority of its citizens, while the Irish government will have an advisory role in the county’s governance for the first time.
January 11, 1988 – John Hume, leader of the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labor Party, then the leading party among Catholic voters, begins a series of talks with Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA’s political ally Sinn Fein.
31 August 1994 – The IRA declares a “complete cessation of military activity”.
13 October 1994 – The Combined Loyalist Military Command, speaking on behalf of the main loyalist groups, the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), also announces a ceasefire.
November 30, 1995 – U.S. President Bill Clinton visits Northern Ireland.
9 February 1996 – The IRA ends the ceasefire with a bomb attack on South Quay in London’s Docklands, killing two people.
May 30, 1996 – Elections are held for a Northern Ireland forum ahead of all-party talks. Sinn Fein gets 15.5 per cent, the largest share of the vote, although the British government says the party will be barred from talks unless the IRA ceasefire is restored.
May 1, 1997 – Tony Blair is elected British Prime Minister in a landslide victory for his left-wing Labor Party.
July 20, 1997 – The IRA renews its ceasefire.
September 9, 1997 – Sinn Fein participates in multi-party talks in Stormont.
October 13, 1997 – Blair first meets Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.
9 January 1998 – British Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam visits Maze Prison to meet with UDA prisoners in an attempt to change their recent decision to end their support for the peace process. She succeeds.
March 26, 1998 – Speaker George Mitchell, a U.S. senator from Maine, sets an April 9 deadline for a deal to be reached.
April 10, 1998 – After all-night negotiations, the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, is signed.