The Good Friday Agreement

The Good Friday Agreement

The Good Friday Agreement was agreed to try and settle the conflicts

in Northern Ireland, the agreement was reached on Friday the 10th of

April. Voting on the 22nd Of May 1998 resulted in a majority in favor

of the Good Friday Agreement. The agreement consisted of changes in

the constitution, it was decided that there would be no change in the

condition of N.Ireland without consent of the greater part, North and

South, Article 2 and 3 of the Republican constitution have been

altered to coincide with this principle of consent. The Government in

N.Ireland was also changed; a new N.Ireland assembly was setup, a

majority of Nationalists and Unionists is needed for all assembly

choices. North-South bodies where also setup as well as a

British-Irish council. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commision is

also drafting a Bill Of Rights for N.Ireland. Decommissioning of

weapons was also a term to the agreement, those accepting the

agreement would do all in their power to bring about decommissioning

by April 2000, Unions argued that this means that weapons should have

been decommissioned by this date, whereas Sinn Fein argues that that

doing all in their power doesn't necessarily mean succeeding, small

amounts of LVF weapons have been destroyed while Republicans have

opened arm dumps for inspection - they see this as part of

decommissioning. Demilitarization was also a term reached in the

agreement, this meant the British Government would decrease the number

of soldiers based in N.Ireland, and reducing some bases and

checkpoints. Some Republicans think that more should have been done

such as removal of army bases in Nationalist areas. A new police

service was also setup - The Police Service Of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

instead of the RUC. Police now wear a new uniform and badge, their aim

was to equal amounts of catholic and protestant recruits in the PSNI.

Unionists and Nationalists still have differing attitudes towards the

agreement. Unionists thought that releasing the prisoners early

undermined the victims and their relatives while the RUCs effort was