T6 Northern Ireland

Question 1

Blair & Northern Ireland (1997 - 2007)

Answer 1

• Tony Blair had inherited a great political opportunity in Northern Ireland in 1997.
• A lot of the vital work in building confidence between the Protestant unionists/loyalists and the Catholic nationalists/republicans communities had been done under John Major’s Conservative government.
• This meant that there was a unique historic opportunity to bring about an end to ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland.

Question 2

Northern Ireland Peace Talks

Answer 2

• There had been peace talks involving all the different parties in Northern Ireland on and off since 1996.
• John Hume, the leader of the moderate Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) had persuaded Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness of Sinn Fein that a fair negotiated settlement was possible.

Question 3

US Senator George Mitchell

Answer 3

• Both sides, Protestant unionist/loyalist and Catholic nationalist/republican, trusted the chairman of the peace talks, George Mitchell, a former US Senator who was Bill Clinton’s US special envoy for Northern Ireland.

Question 4

Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern

Answer 4

• There was a further international dimension.
• Blair had developed a close working relationship with the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, which continued throughout the period of 1997 to 2007.
• This helped to win the support and trust of Catholic republicans.

Question 5

Tony Blair’s Personal Commitment

Answer 5

• Blair’s personal commitment, however, was also vital and proved capable of reassuring David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and other Ulster Unionists that Sinn Fein could be trusted to negotiate in good faith and to implement any terms of a peace agreement that were agreed.
• Furthermore, the Labour Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam, kept the paramilitaries of both sides on board by visiting th em in the Maze Prison.

Question 6

IRA Decommissioning of Arms

Answer 6

• The tense final negotiations in April 1998 went on for 17 hours after the final deadline set by George Mitchell was missed. One of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) negotiators, Jeffrey Donaldson, walked out on 9th April 1998 in protest at the lack of progress in ensuring that the IRA would decommission its arms, leading to fears that negotiations would collapse.
• On 10th April 1998, however, George Mitchell announced that an agreement had been reached and that this agreement would be put to a referendum of the people, both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland.

Question 7

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement

Answer 7

• Both the UK and Irish government would give up their claim on Northern Ireland as it would be up to the people of Northern Ireland to decide whether they would remain part of the United Kingdom or in future unite with the Republic of Ireland.
• There would be a devolved power-sharing executive [government] devolved assembly [parliament] in Northern Ireland would be established.
• Links between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and between Britain and the Republic of Ireland would be strengthened.
• All political parties would use their influence with the paramilitary groups to ensure the decommissioning of weapons.
• There would be an independent commission to oversee the abolition of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and reform of policing in Northern Ireland.
• There could be an early release of prisoners where paramilitary organisations were committed to peace.

Question 8

The Good Friday Referendum

Answer 8

• The Good Friday Referendum was held on 22nd May in 1998.
• There was a clear yes vote with 71% of voters in Northern Ireland and 94% of voters in the Republic of Ireland, voting in support of the terms for the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Question 9

Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement

Answer 9

• The leaders of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness, were very worried about a republican backlash against the Good Friday Agreement by republican extremists who might accuse them of ‘selling out’ their cause.
• David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party feared there would be a loyalist backlash against the Good Friday Agreement by the powerful negative influence of Ian Paisley’s, the leader of the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
• Some of these fears were well-founded and soon realised. There was the Omagh bombing in 1998, which killed 30 people, carried out by splinter republicans belonging to the so-called Continuity IRA.
• Also, over the next 10 years some unionists became disillusioned with some parts of the Good Friday Agreement leading to Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to replace the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) as the main political party of Protestant unionists in Northern Ireland.
• Blair remained very closely involved in Northern Ireland throughout his premiership. In the following ten years there were several disagreements over whether the paramilitaries were really decommissioning all their weapons, over the early release of paramilitary prisoners, the right of the Protestant Orange Order to continue its historic marches in Catholic
  neighbourhoods.
• The devolved institutions had to be briefly suspended in 2002 until the St Andrews Agreement in 2006, which reiterated the key provisions of the Good Friday Agreement.
• Although not all of Northern Ireland’s problems were fully solved, many people regarded the Good Friday Agreement as Blair’s greatest achievement while prime minister.