10 April 1998

The Good Friday Agreement

After paramilitary ceasefires and two years of talks, the British and Irish governments and most Northern Ireland parties sign a peace agreement, endorsed by referendums North and South.

The Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement) — Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, with Northern Ireland parties (1998)
The 1998 Referendums — ARK Northern Ireland Elections, ARK (Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University)
Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)

Well established peacepartitionidentity

Part of the story of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The peace process grew out of quiet contacts in the late 1980s and early 1990s: between John Hume of the SDLP and Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin, between Sinn Féin and the British government through back channels, and between the British and Irish governments, whose 1993 Downing Street Declaration said Britain had “no selfish strategic or economic interest” in Northern Ireland.

Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)
Hume, John — Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy

The IRA declared a ceasefire on 31 August 1994 and the main loyalist groups followed in October. The IRA ceasefire broke down with the London Docklands bomb in February 1996 and was restored in July 1997, allowing Sinn Féin into talks chaired by US Senator George Mitchell.

Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)
Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA — Richard English, Macmillan (2003)

What was agreed

The Agreement was signed on Good Friday, 10 April 1998. Its core ideas were:

The Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement) — Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, with Northern Ireland parties (1998)

Consent. Northern Ireland remains part of the UK as long as a majority there wishes; if a majority ever votes for a united Ireland, both governments must give effect to it. The Republic changed Articles 2 and 3 of its Constitution, replacing a territorial claim with an aspiration to unity by consent.
Power-sharing. A Northern Ireland Assembly and an Executive in which unionists and nationalists must govern together, with cross-community voting on key decisions.
North-South and East-West bodies linking Belfast with Dublin, and the whole of Ireland with Britain.
Identity. The people of Northern Ireland can identify and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, and hold either or both citizenships.
Prisoners, policing and arms. Early release of paramilitary prisoners, reform of policing, and a commitment to decommissioning weapons.
- The Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement) — Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, with Northern Ireland parties (1998)
- Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)

The votes

On 22 May 1998 referendums were held on both sides of the border, the first all-island vote since 1918. In Northern Ireland 71.1% voted yes; in the Republic, 94.4%.

The 1998 Referendums — ARK Northern Ireland Elections, ARK (Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University)

Most nationalists backed it strongly; unionists were split roughly down the middle. Hume and Trimble shared the Nobel Peace Prize that year.

The 1998 Referendums — ARK Northern Ireland Elections, ARK (Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University)
Hume, John — Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy
John Hume – Nobel Lecture — John Hume, Nobel Foundation (1998)

A fragile success

The peace was tested at once: on 15 August 1998 a dissident republican bomb in Omagh killed 29 people, the worst single atrocity of the Troubles.

Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles — David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney and Chris Thornton, Mainstream Publishing (1999)
Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)

The power-sharing institutions have collapsed several times, most recently from 2022 to 2024. The IRA formally ended its campaign in 2005 and its weapons were decommissioned. In 2007 the former bitter enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness became First and deputy First Minister, and in 2024 Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill became the first nationalist First Minister.

Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)
Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA — Richard English, Macmillan (2003)
Northern Ireland — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica

For many in Ireland the Agreement is the proudest achievement of their lifetime. For others, especially some unionists and victims’ families, it brought peace without justice. But almost everyone agrees on what it ended: the near-daily killing that was normal for thirty years.

Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)

How it's seen

Nationalist view

A historic compromise that ended the violence, secured equality and an Irish dimension, and opened a peaceful, democratic path to a united Ireland through a future referendum.

The Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement) — Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, with Northern Ireland parties (1998)
Hume, John — Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy
Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)

Unionist views

Divided. Supporters such as David Trimble saw it securing the Union by consent; opponents, led by Ian Paisley's DUP, objected to prisoner releases and to Sinn Féin entering government before IRA decommissioning. Many unionists still feel the Agreement has delivered more for nationalists.

Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)
The 1998 Referendums — ARK Northern Ireland Elections, ARK (Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University)

British government view

A landmark settlement, built on Britain's earlier statements that it had no "selfish strategic or economic interest" in Northern Ireland, committing it to respect the wishes of the people there.

The Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement) — Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, with Northern Ireland parties (1998)
Making Sense of the Troubles — David McKittrick and David McVea, Blackstaff Press (2000)

Why it matters today

Ireland

The Agreement is the foundation of today's peace. It is why there is no visible border on the island, why people in Northern Ireland can be Irish, British or both, and why any change to the North's status depends on a vote. Defending it shaped Ireland's whole approach to Brexit.

Northern Ireland

The Agreement is the constitution of daily life: power-sharing at Stormont, the right to be Irish, British or both, and the promise that the border changes only by a vote. A generation has grown up in relative peace. Its institutions keep collapsing, and many feel it froze the two blocs rather than dissolving them, but very few want to go back.