He April 10, 1998 was signed on Good Friday Agreement in Belfast that ended 30 years of devastating conflict in Northern Ireland that killed more than 3,500 people. This conflict pitted the unionists, of the Protestant religion, demographically in the majority and supporters of a union with the United Kingdom, against the Irish republicans, predominantly Catholics, demographically minority and supporters of independence or integration into the Republic of Ireland.
The armed conflict began on October 8, 1968 when the police forcefully repressed a demonstration in Londonderry by an association that defended the civil rights of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. The violence intensified and also spread to Belfast, having to deploy the British army.
In 1970, the armed group IRA (Irish Republican Army) began a series of attacks against the military that were responded to by Protestant paramilitary groups.
One of the darkest days of the conflict was January 30, 1972, known as ‘Bloody Sunday’. Members of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment fired at protesters taking part in a civil rights march in Londonderry, a city with a Catholic majority. 14 people died. This tragic event would cause the self-government of Northern Ireland to be suspended in March of that same year.
In the 1970s, the IRA extended its campaign of bombings on British soil. In 1981 IRA prisoners demanded political prisoner status with a hunger strike in a Belfast jail. Ten prisoners died, the first of them, Bobby Sands. This event helped Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, become a major political force.
Signature of the agreement
After months of negotiations, on April 10, 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Belfast between the London, Dublin and Northern Irish political parties.
The protagonists of this peace agreement were Tony Blair, British Prime Minister; Bertie Ahern, Irish Prime Minister; David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP); Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, from Sinn Fein; John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party; George Mitchell, former US senator and mediator in the negotiations. The latter spoke the words that have gone down in history: “I am pleased to announce that the two governments and political parties in Northern Ireland have reached an agreement.”
After signing, Northern Ireland regained autonomy. The signatory parties pledged to use exclusively democratic and peaceful means and to disarm the paramilitary forces. Likewise, the disappearance of a physical border between Ireland and Northern Ireland was established. Issue that has caused difficulties for the implementation of Brexit.
In May 1998 a referendum was held in Northern Ireland and another in Ireland, with 71 and 95% of votes in favor, respectively, of the application of this agreement.
Four months after the signing, on August 15, the Real IRA, a dissident group of the IRA, committed the worst massacre of the conflict, the Omagh attack in which 29 people died, including two Spaniards.
But the Good Friday Agreement remained in force.
