The History of Northern Ireland
Over the years there has been many attempts of creating peace in
Northern Ireland. The political deal, which aimed to form the lasting
settlement following the 1994 paramilitary ceasefires in Northern
Ireland, known as the Good Friday Agreement, was signed on 22 May
1998. Conflict in Northern Ireland is both political and religious. It
is a conflict between two nationalities Irish and British, and two
religions protestant and catholic. I think that there will be peace in
Northern Ireland eventually as there has already been a vast amount of
progress in peace agreements, but a lot of Protestants and Catholics
still hold a grudge against one and other. Britain mainly Support the
unionists as they have been more cooperative over the years, but they
still don’t have their full support.
The current position in Northern Ireland is a relatively good one,
compared to what it was. This suggests that the peace process is
progressing. Recently there has been an IRA decommissioning of
weapons, which shows cooperation between the organisation and the
government. In the past this has been a major problem and is extremely
important to the peace process. However the problem has always been
verification by a recognised authority and the process relied on trust
and honesty, and these qualities have never been strong between the
two protagonists.
The unionists don’t believe that all the weapons have been destroyed
as the IRA were always in control of their declarations of their
holdings. The independent observer appointed was the Canadian General
John de Chastelain, who headed the Northern Ireland decommissioning
team and he produced evidence to support the IRA statement that all
weapons were destroyed. Nevertheless suspicions remain.
Tony Blair said, “People in Northern Ireland will now want to see
clear evidence that all forms of paramilitary and other criminal
activities have ended for good.” The IRA did not want photos taken as
they thought it would be to humiliating. This proves that there is
still tension between the two ideologies and furthermore, this shows