The NI Peace Agreement: A history of Northern Ireland’s political arrangements

The agreement was signed, the register was signed and the minister was appointed.

Northern Ireland once again has devolved government, with the return of Stormont.

The deal between the DUP and the government is the latest in a long series of agreements, some of which have stood the test of time better than others.

Let’s take a look at some of the deals from the 1970s to the present.

In the early 1970s, unrest caused violence to spiral out of control, and the British government decided in early 1972 to prorogate the Northern Ireland Assembly, a devolved parliament with a majority of trade unionists.

London aimed to form and run a new devolved government based on power sharing between nationalists and trade unionists.

In early 1973, he announced plans for this new Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive.

Months of negotiations culminated in the Sunningdale Agreement in December 1973. The Sunningdale Agreement was named after the Civil Service College in Sunningdale, England, where the negotiations took place.

However, the Ulster Unionist Party, the largest unionist party, was deeply divided over the deal, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and loyalist paramilitary groups also strongly opposed it.

The main nationalist party, the Social Democratic Labor Party (SDLP), supported this, but the IRA continued its campaign of violence.

A new executive was established in January 1974, but a mass civil disobedience movement led by the Ulster Labor Council later that year led to its collapse in May.

Unlike Sunningdale, the Anglo-Irish Agreement did not involve Northern Irish political parties.

This was an agreement signed on 15 November 1985 between the British and Irish governments, led by Margaret Thatcher and Garret Fitzgerald respectively.

This agreement gives the Republic of Ireland a consultative role in Northern Ireland for the first time.

Both governments also adhered to the principle that Northern Ireland’s constitutional status could only be changed with the consent of a majority of the people.

The deal was widely rejected by unionists because of its role in the Republic of Ireland, and led to large demonstrations, including a mass rally at Belfast City Hall.

All Labor members in Northern Ireland resigned in protest and a series of by-elections were held.

The SDLP supported the agreement, but the IRA opposed it, criticizing the Irish government for formally recognizing the partition of Ireland.

After years of negotiations between political parties and the British and Irish governments, as well as negotiations with paramilitary groups, the agreement, officially known as the Belfast Agreement, was signed in the early hours of Good Friday, April 10, 1998. Ta.

This date gave the agreement another widely used name.

This was an agreement between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland’s political parties, which established the parliament and executive at Stormont, and was revived by the recent agreement.

It had the support of the UUP, SDLP, Sinn Féin, Alliance and a number of smaller parties, but was opposed by the DUP.

The parliament and executive were to operate on a power-sharing basis between trade unionists and nationalists.

The agreement also created a new link between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the North-South Ministerial Council, and a link between the British and Irish governments and the devolved administrations, the British-Irish Council.

Other elements of the agreement included police reform in Northern Ireland, the release of paramilitary prisoners, and amendments to the Republic of Ireland’s constitution to remove jurisdictional claims over the entire island.

This agreement is the basis for the operation of the devolved government in Northern Ireland today, but it has faced many challenges along the way.

Since 1998, Stormont has experienced a number of crises, including in October 2002 when police raided the Sinn Féin offices in Parliament on suspicion of operating an IRA spy ring, leaving the facility in ruins. It collapsed.

Keep talking for many more years to get things back on track.

They culminated in October 2006 with a summit in St. Andrews, a Scottish seaside town famous for being the home of golf and one of Britain’s oldest universities.

This agreement amended and built on, but did not replace, the Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Féin agreed to support the police and courts, and the DUP pledged to share power with Sinn Féin.

The method of selecting the First Minister and Deputy First Minister has been changed, and statutory ministerial regulations have been introduced.

The deal saw the DUP’s Ian Paisley become Prime Minister and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister, an unusual situation given the rivalry between the two parties. .

They were nicknamed the Chuckle Brothers after a photo of them laughing together at Stormont.

Another element of the St Andrews Agreement was the prospect of police and judicial powers being transferred from London to Stormont.

By February 2010, this was not going to happen because the DUP opposed it, Martin McGuinness had resigned as deputy prime minister, and there were real fears that Parliament would collapse.

However, an agreement was struck at Hillsborough Castle, the official residence of the King of Northern Ireland, allowing the Minister of Justice to take up his post at Stormont.

No agreement has addressed all issues, and the legacy of the past continues to linger in all negotiations.

Mark Devenport, then BBC News NI’s political editor, identified the flag, loyalty parades and past issues as three key issues for Stormont in the early 2010s.

These were the topics on which negotiations failed in 2013.

By 2014, Northern Ireland’s attitude towards UK-wide welfare reform was becoming an increasingly difficult obstacle for a power-sharing administration, with doubts about whether Stormont could balance its budget and whether changes to the power-sharing body were needed to do so. Serious doubts arose as to whether it was necessary to add it. It will be more stable and effective.

December 2014’s Stormont House Agreement (named after the Northern Ireland Office’s Belfast headquarters) saw a series of financial agreements signed, including devolving corporation tax to Belfast.

As well as establishing a number of institutions aimed at tackling the legacy of the unrest, it established a commission on flag-raising and reduced the number of MPs and the Stormont executive.

Just a year later, there was another déjà vu moment, with more debate over militiaism and welfare reform.

The name “Fresh Start Agreement” raised questions about what all the other agreements were about.

New principles were established that expected politicians to work towards dismantling militias, while international bodies were established to monitor militia activities.

Relaxation measures were introduced regarding welfare reform.

However, the parties were unable to break the impasse over inheritance issues that arose from the troubles.

In January 2017, Stormont’s institutions collapsed once again. Despite tensions on several other issues, the DUP’s response to the failed green energy plan led to Sinn Féin’s resignation.

As previous talks failed to produce a breakthrough, the “New Decade, New Approach” was closed down in January 2020.

This includes a commitment to reform Irish language legislation and petitions of concern, a mechanism that could be used to stop some bills from passing.

Other factors included a pledge to increase the number of police officers and a pledge by the UK government to inject cash into public services.