Timeline Of The Good Friday Agreement

Many experts and political leaders fear that an interruption of this cooperation could undermine confidence in the agreement and hence the basis for peace in Northern Ireland. The agreement also called for the urgent need to reform police work in Northern Ireland; to achieve this, an independent audit would be carried out. To promote minority languages, the government created the Central Community Relations Unit to implement a policy of using languages for Irish, Ulster and the languages of other communities. On 9 April, when the talks had passed their midnight deadline, UUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson left time due to disputes over decommissioning. The following afternoon, April 10, George Mitchell announced to the media that a final agreement had been reached. While the provision of the referendum and the provision on constitutional amendments fulfil the original timetable for implementation, the dismantling of the paramilitary troops has not taken place in two years. (1) This agreement provides for a democratically elected assembly in Northern Ireland, which performs its functions as a member, including the executive and the legislative branch, and which is subject to prospects of protecting the rights and interests of all parties to the Community. There is no official breakdown of how nationalist and unionist communities voted, but CAIN, the Internet`s archives of conflicts, estimated that the overwhelming majority (up to 97%) Members of Northern Ireland`s predominantly nationalist community voted “yes.” Their estimate of the predominantly Protestant Unionist community for the agreement was between 51 and 53 per cent. Referendums were held on 22 May 1998 in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In Northern Ireland, people were asked: “Do you support the agreement reached in the multi-party negotiations on Northern Ireland and presented in Command Paper 3883?” The participation rate was 81.1 per cent, of which 71.1 per cent argued in favour of approval. In the Republic of Ireland, people were asked: “Do you support the proposed constitutional amendment contained in the stated bill, nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1998?” The turnout was 55.6%, of which 94.4% supported the proposed amendment to the Constitution.1 In Northern Ireland, the results of the vote on the agreement were the results: the British Army suspended its activities in Northern Ireland from 1 August 2007, thus ending a 38-year presence in Northern Ireland.