Explainer: The Good Friday Agreement - Sharing Power
The Good Friday Agreement, signed on April 10, 1998, is the cornerstone of the Irish and British governments’ commitment to peace and stability on the island of Ireland. Also known as the Belfast Agreement, it was overwhelmingly approved in two referenda, North and South of the Border, in May 1998.
It led to the establishment of a system of devolved government in Northern Ireland and the creation of many new institutions such as the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive, the North South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council.
The Agreement gave prominence to the ‘principle of consent’, which affirms the legitimacy of the aspiration to a United Ireland; while recognising the current wish of the majority in Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.
It goes on to state that: ‘It is for the people of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a United Ireland, accepting that this right must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland”.
The Department of Foreign Affairs deems the Peace Process “successful” over the last 25 years in “moving definitively beyond the violence of the Troubles”. Further political and legal agreements have consolidated the peace settlement provided for in the GFA.
In 2005, the Independent Decommissioning Body confirmed that IRA decommissioning had taken place.
In 2006, the St Andrew’s Agreement was published, which set out a path to full devolution of policing and justice and a stable power-sharing arrangement.
In 2010, the signing of the Hillsborough Agreement allowed for the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which then began later that year. It also included an agreement on controversial parades, which had caused ongoing conflict between communities.
In 2014, the British and Irish Governments convened talks with the Northern Ireland Executive parties, resulting in the Stormont House Agreement of December 2014. Its twin aims are the reconciliation and economic renewal in Northern Ireland.
In November 2015, A Fresh Start – The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan addressed implementation of many aspects of the Stormont House Agreement along with tackling the continuing impact and legacy of paramilitarism.
June 2016 - The UK voted to leave the UK (Brexit).
In 2017, the power-sharing Executive collapsed and the Executive and Assembly did not meet for three years as convened by the two Governments continued, to seek to restore the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement to sustainable operation.
In January 2020, the British and Irish Governments proposed the New Decade, New Approach agreement to the Northern Ireland political parties, providing for a balanced package to make politics and government in Northern Ireland more transparent, accountable, stable, inclusive and effective.
The power-sharing Executive and Assembly were restored, with all five main political parties in Northern Ireland participating.
In February 2022, the Assembly collapsed again. This was triggered by the DUP First Minister Paul Given resigning in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Despite, Sinn Féin winning the subsequent General Election in the North for the first time allowing them to nominate a First Minister, the DUP has refused to nominate a Deputy First Minister until “the Northern Ireland Protocol is scrapped or changed”.
Due to the grand coalition component of the power-sharing agreement, there can be no Northern Ireland Assembly until the DUP and Sinn Féin both nominate a candidate to the executive level.