Belfast/Good Friday Agreement 1998

The Good Friday Agreement got its name from the day in the Christian calendar on which it was signed. It is formally known as the Belfast Agreement after the city where it was agreed, which is the capital of Northern Ireland. It was both an agreement between the various political parties in Northern Ireland itself and an agreement between the two governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland which were responsible for putting it into effect. It was designed to bring an end to thirty years of violent conflict (known as ‘The Troubles’) which had lasted since 1969 by establishing a power-sharing devolved government in the province and embedding commitments intended to be satisfactory to all parties regarding its long-term future. Despite its obvious limitations and an abiding sense of unfinished business, it has brought relative peace to Northern Ireland and offers encouragement and potential models for the resolution of other seeming intractable ethnic and religious conflicts in the contemporary world.