Good Friday Agreement

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement (Irish: Multi-Party Agreement
Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste; Ulster- Type Multilateral agreement
Scots: Guid Friday Greeance or Bilfawst Greeance),[1] is a pair of
Signed 10 April 1998
agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence
of the Troubles, a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had been Location Belfast, Northern
ongoing since the 1960s. It served as a major development in the Ireland
Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. Northern Ireland's Effective 2 December 1999
present devolved system of government is based on the agreement.
The agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Parties Government of the
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and between the Republic of United Kingdom
Ireland and the United Kingdom. Government of Ireland
Parties in Northern
Issues relating to sovereignty, civil and cultural rights, Ireland
decommissioning of weapons, demilitarisation, justice and policing
were central to the agreement. Language English

The agreement was approved by voters across the island of Ireland in British-Irish Agreement
two referendums held on 22 May 1998. In Northern Ireland, voters
Type Bilateral international
were asked in the 1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement
agreement
referendum whether they supported the multi-party agreement. In the
Republic of Ireland, voters were asked whether they would allow the Signed 10 April 1998
state to sign the agreement and allow necessary constitutional changes Location Belfast, Northern
(Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland) to facilitate it. Ireland
The people of both jurisdictions needed to approve the agreement in
order to give effect to it. Effective 2 December 1999
Original Tony Blair • Bertie
The British–Irish Agreement came into force on 2 December 1999. signatories Ahern
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was the only major political
Mo Mowlam • David
group in Northern Ireland to oppose the Good Friday Agreement.[2]
Andrews
Parties United Kingdom
Republic of
Contents Ireland
Structure of agreement Ratifiers • Government of the
Parties and structure of government United Kingdom, for
Status of Northern Ireland the United Kingdom

New institutions • Government of

Strand 1 Ireland, for Ireland
Strand 2 Language English
Strand 3
Decommissioning and normalisation
Equality and human rights
Referendums
 Implementation
Comparison to the Sunningdale Agreement
Constitutional relevance
See also
Notes
References
External links

Structure of agreement
The agreement is made up of two inter-related documents, both agreed in Belfast on Good Friday, 10 April
1998:

1. a multi-party agreement by most of Northern Ireland's political parties (the Multi-Party

Agreement);
2. an international agreement between the British and Irish governments (the British–Irish
Agreement).

The agreement set out a complex series of provisions relating to a number of areas including:

The status and system of government of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. (Strand 1)
The relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. (Strand 2)
The relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. (Strand 3)

Parties and structure of government

The agreement was made between the British and Irish governments and eight political parties or groupings
from Northern Ireland. Three were representative of unionism: the Ulster Unionist Party which had led
unionism in Ulster since the beginning of the 20th century, and two smaller parties associated with Loyalist
paramilitaries, the Progressive Unionist Party (linked with the Ulster Volunteer Force-UVF), and Ulster
Democratic Party (the political wing of the Ulster Defence Association--UDA). Two were broadly labelled
nationalist: the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and Sinn Féin, the republican party associated with the
Provisional Irish Republican Army.[3][4] Independent of these rival traditions, were two other Assembly
parties, the cross-community Alliance Party and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. There was also the
grouping Labour Coalition. The US senator George J. Mitchell was sent to chair the talks between the parties
and groups by the US president Bill Clinton.[5]

The agreement comprises two elements:

a treaty between the two states, signed by the leaders of the two governments; and
a more substantial agreement between the eight political parties and the two governments.

The former text has just four articles; it is that short text that is the legal agreement, but it incorporates in its
schedules the latter agreement.[6] Technically, this scheduled agreement can be distinguished as the Multi-
Party Agreement, as opposed to the Belfast Agreement itself.[6]
The vague wording of some of the provisions, described as "constructive ambiguity",[7] helped ensure
acceptance of the agreement and served to postpone debate on some of the more contentious issues. Most
notably these included paramilitary decommissioning, police reform and the normalisation of Northern Ireland.

Status of Northern Ireland

The agreement acknowledged:

that the majority of the people of Northern Ireland wished to remain a part of the United
Kingdom;
that a substantial section of the people of Northern Ireland, and the majority of the people of the
island of Ireland, wished to bring about a united Ireland.

Both of these views were acknowledged as being legitimate. For the first time, the Irish government accepted
in a binding international agreement that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom.[8] The Irish
Constitution was also amended to implicitly recognise Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom's
sovereign territory,[6] conditional upon the consent for a united Ireland from majorities of the people in both
jurisdictions on the island. On the other hand, the language of the agreement reflects a switch in the United
Kingdom's statutory emphasis from one for the union to one for a united Ireland.[8] The agreement thus left the
issue of future sovereignty over Northern Ireland open-ended.[9]

The agreement reached was that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and would remain so until
a majority of the people both of Northern Ireland and of the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise. Should that
happen, then the British and Irish governments are under "a binding obligation" to implement that choice.

Irrespective of Northern Ireland's constitutional status within the United Kingdom, or part of a united Ireland,
the right of "the people of Northern Ireland" to "identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or
both" (as well as their right to hold British or Irish citizenship or both) was recognised. By the words "people
of Northern Ireland" the Agreement meant "all persons born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of
their birth, at least one parent who is a British citizen, an Irish citizen or is otherwise entitled to reside in
Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence."[10]

The two governments also agreed, irrespective of the position of Northern Ireland:

the power of the sovereign government with jurisdiction there shall be exercised with rigorous
impartiality on behalf of all the people in the diversity of their identities and traditions and shall be
founded on the principles of full respect for, and equality of, civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights, of freedom from discrimination for all citizens, and of parity of esteem and of just
and equal treatment for the identity, ethos and aspirations of both communities.

As part of the agreement, the British parliament repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920 (which had
established Northern Ireland, partitioned Ireland and asserted a territorial claim over all of Ireland) and the
people of the Republic of Ireland amended Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland, which asserted a
territorial claim over Northern Ireland.

New institutions
The agreement sets out a framework for the creation and number of institutions across three "strands".
Strand 1

Strand 1 dealt with the democratic institutions of Northern Ireland and

established two major institutions:

Northern Ireland Assembly

Northern Ireland Executive

The Northern Ireland Assembly is a devolved legislature for Northern

Ireland with mandatory cross-community voting on certain major Parliament Buildings at Stormont, in
decisions. The Northern Ireland Executive is a power-sharing Belfast, seat of the Northern Ireland
executive with ministerial portfolios to be allocated between parties by Assembly
the D'Hondt method.

Strand 2

Strand 2 dealt with "north-south" issues and institutions to be created between Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland. These are:

North/South Ministerial Council

North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association
North/South Consultative Forum

The North/South Ministerial Council is made up of ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive and the
Government of Ireland. It was established "to develop consultation, co-operation and action" in twelve areas
of mutual interest. These include six areas where the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of
Ireland form common policies but implement these separately in each jurisdiction, and six areas where they
develop common policies that are implemented through shared all-Ireland institutions.

The various "institutional and constitutional arrangements" set out in the Agreement are also stated to be
"interlocking and interdependent".

As part of the Agreement, the newly created Northern Ireland Assembly and the national parliament of Ireland
(the Oireachtas) agreed to consider creating a joint parliamentary forum made up of equal numbers from both
institutions. In October 2012, this forum was created as the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association.

The Northern Ireland political parties who endorsed the agreement were also asked to consider the
establishment of an independent consultative forum representative of civil society with members with expertise
in social, cultural, economic and other issues and appointed by the two administrations. An outline structure
for the North/South Consultative Forum was agreed in 2002 and in 2006 the Northern Ireland Executive
agreed it would support its establishment.

Strand 3

Strand 3 dealt with "east-west" issues and institutions to be created between Ireland and Great Britain (as well
as the Crown dependencies). These are:

British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference

British–Irish Council
An expanded British–Irish Interparliamentary Body
The British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference was agreed to
replace the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Council and the
Intergovernmental Conference created under the 1985 Anglo-Irish
Agreement.

The conference takes the form of regular and frequent meetings

between the British and Irish ministers to promote co-operation at all
levels between both governments. On matters not devolved to
Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland may put forward view The offices of the North/South
and proposals. All decisions of the conference will be by agreement Ministerial Council on Upper English
between both governments and the two governments agreed to make Street, Armagh, Northern Ireland
determined efforts to resolve disagreements between them.

The British–Irish Council is made up of ministerial representatives from the British and Irish governments, the
UK's devolved administrations (Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), as well as from the Crown
dependencies, the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey. The purpose of the council is to promote co-operations
and pose a forum for the creation of common policies.

Under the agreement, it was proposed that the already-existing British–Irish Interparliamentary Body would be
built upon. Prior to the agreement, the body was composed of parliamentarians from the British and Irish
parliaments only. In 2001, as suggested by the agreement, it was expanded to incorporate parliamentarians
from all of the members of the British–Irish Council.

These institutional arrangements created across these three strands are set out in the agreement as being
"interlocking and interdependent". In particular, the functioning of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the
North/South Ministerial Council are stated to be "so closely inter-related that the success of each depends on
that of the other" and participation in the North/South Ministerial Council is "one of the essential
responsibilities attaching to relevant posts in [Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland]".

In the opinion of analyst Brendan O'Leary, the institutions established by the deal "made Northern Ireland bi-
national" and reinforced "imaginative elements of co-sovereignty".[9]

Decommissioning and normalisation

Against the background of political violence during the Troubles, the agreement committed the participants to
"exclusively democratic and peaceful means of resolving differences on political issues". This took two
aspects:

decommissioning of weapons held by paramilitary groups;

the normalisation of security arrangements in Northern Ireland.

The participants to the agreement comprised two sovereign states (the United Kingdom and the Republic of
Ireland) with armed and police forces involved in the Troubles. Two political parties, Sinn Féin and the
Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), were linked to paramilitary organisations: the Provisional Irish Republican
Army (IRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) respectively. The Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), which
was linked to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), had withdrawn from the talks three months previously.

The multi-party agreement committed the parties to "use any influence they may have" to bring about the
decommissioning of all paramilitary arms within two years of the referendums approving the agreement. The
process of normalisation committed the British government to the reduction in the number and role of its armed
forces in Northern Ireland "to levels compatible with a normal peaceful society". This included the removal of
security installations and the removal of special emergency powers in Northern Ireland. The Irish government
committed to a "wide-ranging review" of its Offences against the State legislation.

The agreement called for the establishment of an independent commission to review policing arrangements in
Northern Ireland "including [the] means of encouraging widespread community support" for those
arrangements. The British government also committed to a "wide-ranging review" of the criminal justice
system in Northern Ireland.

Both the British and Irish governments committed to the early release of prisoners serving sentences in
connection with the activities of paramilitary groups, provided that those groups continued to maintain "a
complete and unequivocal ceasefire". Cases were reviewed individually.[11] There was no amnesty for crimes
which had not been prosecuted.

A date of May 2000 was set for total disarming of all paramilitary groups. This was not achieved leading the
assembly to be suspended on a number of occasions as a consequence of unionist objections.[12] A series of
rounds of decommissioning by the IRA took place (in October 2001, April 2002 and October 2003) and in
July 2005 the IRA announced the formal end of its campaign. Loyalist decommissioning did not follow
immediately. In June 2009, the UVF announced it had completed decommissioning and the UDA said it had
started to decommission its arsenal.[13]

Equality and human rights

The agreement affirmed a commitment to "the mutual respect, the civil rights and the religious liberties of
everyone in the community". The multi-party agreement recognised "the importance of respect, understanding
and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity", especially in relation to the Irish language, Ulster Scots, and
the languages of Northern Ireland's other ethnic minorities, "all of which are part of the cultural wealth of the
island of Ireland".

The British government committed to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into
the law of Northern Ireland and to the establishment of a Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
Establishing statutory obligations for public authorities in Northern Ireland to carry out their work "with due
regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity was set as a particular priority". The Irish government
committed to "[taking] steps to further the protection of human rights in its jurisdiction" and to the
establishment of an Irish Human Rights Commission.

Referendums
Under the agreement, the British and Irish governments committed to organising referendums on 22 May
1998, in Northern Ireland and in the Republic respectively. The Northern Ireland referendum was to approve
the agreement reached in the multi-party talks. The Republic of Ireland referendum was to approve the British-
Irish Agreement and to facilitate the amendment of the Constitution of Ireland in accordance with the
Agreement.

The result of these referendums was a large majority in both parts of Ireland in favour of the agreement. In the
Republic, 56% of the electorate voted, with 94% of the votes in favour of the amendment to the constitution.
The turnout in Northern Ireland was 81%, with 71% of the votes in favour of the agreement.

In the Republic, the electorate voted upon the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. This
amendment both permitted the state to comply with the Belfast Agreement and provided for the removal of the
"territorial claim" contained in Articles 2 and 3. A referendum on the Amsterdam Treaty (Eighteenth
Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland) was held on the same day.
 Nineteenth Amendment of the
Northern Ireland Good Friday
Constitution of Ireland
Agreement referendum, 1998
referendum
Choice Votes %
Choice Votes %
Yes 676,966 71.1
Yes 1,442,583 94.39
No 274,979 28.9
No 85,748 5.61
Valid
951,945 99.82 Valid
votes 1,528,331 98.90
votes
Invalid or
Invalid
blank 1,738 0.18
or blank 17,064 1.10
votes
votes
Total
953,683 100.00 Total
votes 1,545,395 100.00
votes

A 'Yes' campaign poster for the Good

Implementation Friday Agreement during

simultaneous referendums in
Northern Ireland and in the Republic
Direct London rule came to an end in Northern Ireland when power of Ireland.
was formally devolved to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, the
North/South Ministerial Council and the British–Irish Council, as the
commencement orders for the British-Irish Agreement came into effect on 2 December 1999.[14][15][16]
Article 4(2) of the British-Irish Agreement (the Agreement between the British and Irish governments for the
implementation of the Belfast Agreement) required the two governments to notify each other in writing of the
completion of the requirements for the entry into force of the British-Irish Agreement; entry into force was to
be upon the receipt of the latter of the two notifications.[17] The British government agreed to participate in a
televised ceremony at Iveagh House in Dublin, the Irish department of foreign affairs. Peter Mandelson, the
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, attended early on 2 December 1999. He exchanged notifications with
David Andrews, the Irish foreign minister. Shortly after the ceremony, at 10:30 am, the Taoiseach, Bertie
Ahern, signed the declaration formally amending Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution. He then announced
to the Dáil that the British-Irish Agreement had entered into force (including certain supplementary agreements
concerning the Belfast Agreement).[6][18]

Speaking at the 1998 commemoration of the Easter Rising of 1916, Ahern said:

The British Government are effectively out of the equation and neither the British parliament nor
people have any legal right under this agreement to impede the achievement of Irish unity if it had
the consent of the people North and South... Our nation is and always will be a 32-county nation.
Antrim and Down are, and will remain, as much a part of Ireland as any southern county.[19]

The assembly and executive were eventually established in December 1999 on the understanding that
decommissioning would begin immediately, but were suspended within two months due to lack of progress,
before being re-established in May 2000 as Provisional IRA decommissioning eventually began. Aside from
the decommissioning issue, however, ongoing paramilitary activity (albeit relatively low-level compared to the
past) by the Provisional Irish Republican Army—e.g., arms importations, smuggling, organised crime,
"punishment beatings", intelligence-gathering and rioting—was also a stumbling block. The loyalist
paramilitaries also continued similar activity although as they were not represented by a significant political
party, their position was less central to political change.
The overall result of these problems was to damage confidence among unionists in the agreement, which was
exploited by the anti-agreement DUP, which eventually overtook the pro-agreement Ulster Unionist Party
(UUP) in the 2003 Assembly election. The UUP had already resigned from the power-sharing Executive in
2002 following the Stormontgate scandal, which saw three men charged with intelligence-gathering. These
charges were eventually dropped in 2005 on the controversial grounds that pursuit would not be "in the public
interest". Immediately afterwards, one of the accused Sinn Féin members, Denis Donaldson, was exposed as a
British agent.

In 2004, negotiations were held between the two governments, the DUP, and Sinn Féin on an agreement to re-
establish the institutions. These talks failed, but a document published by the governments detailing changes to
the Belfast Agreement became known as the "Comprehensive Agreement". On 26 September 2005, however,
it was announced that the Provisional Irish Republican Army had completely decommissioned its arsenal of
weapons and "put them beyond use". Nonetheless, many unionists, most notably the DUP, remained sceptical.
Of the loyalist paramilitaries, only the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) had decommissioned any weapons.[20]
Further negotiations took place in October 2006, leading to the St Andrews Agreement.

In May 2007, a power-sharing executive was again established to govern Northern Ireland in devolved
matters. The second Northern Ireland Executive had Ian Paisley of the DUP as First Minister and Martin
McGuinness of Sinn Féin as Deputy First Minister. Although Paisley was the official head of the government,
he and Martin McGuinness held equal powers.

Paisley retired from the office of First Minister and from the leadership of the DUP on 5 June 2008 and was
succeeded in both functions by Peter Robinson. In the third Northern Ireland Executive, the same political
relationship existed between Robinson and McGuinness as existed formerly between Paisley and
McGuinness. After Robinson resigned as First Minister on 11 January 2016, he was replaced by Arlene
Foster. Upon McGuinness's resignation on 9 January 2017, the devolved government in Stormont collapsed,
as the Agreement demands when no new leader is appointed. An election was called by Secretary of State for
Northern Ireland James Brokenshire, whereby the DUP and Sinn Féin were returned as the largest parties, and
so began a countdown of talks between both leaders before devolved government could be restored. As of
July 2020, powersharing was reinstalled in Northern Ireland.

Comparison to the Sunningdale Agreement

Some commentators have referred to the Agreement as "Sunningdale for slow learners", which suggests that it
was nothing more than what was on offer in the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973.[21] This assertion has been
criticised by political scientists like Richard Wilford and Stefan Wolff. The former stated that "there are...
significant differences between them [Sunningdale and Belfast], both in terms of content and the circumstances
surrounding their negotiation, implementation, and operation".[22]

The main issues omitted by Sunningdale and addressed by the Belfast Agreement are the principle of self-
determination, the recognition of both national identities, British-Irish intergovernmental cooperation and the
legal procedures to make power-sharing mandatory, such as the cross-community vote and the D'Hondt
system to appoint ministers to the executive.[23][24] Former IRA member and journalist Tommy McKearney
says that the main difference is the intention of the British government to broker a comprehensive deal by
including the IRA and the most uncompromising unionists.[25] Regarding the right to self-determination, two
qualifications are noted by the legal writer Austen Morgan. Firstly, the cession of territory from one state to
another state has to be by international agreement between the UK and Irish governments. Secondly, the
people of Northern Ireland can no longer bring about a united Ireland on their own; they need not only the
Irish government but the people of their neighbouring state, Ireland, to also endorse unity. Morgan also pointed
out that, unlike the Ireland Act 1949 and the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973, devised under
Sunningdale, the 1998 agreement and the consequent British legislation did expressly foresee the possibility of
a united Ireland.[26]
As well as the number of signatories,[Note 1] Stefan Wolff identifies the following similarities and differences
between the issues addressed in the two agreements:[27]

Sunningdale Agreement Belfast Agreement

Consent principle
Self-determination
Reform of the policing system
Prisoners
Bill of Rights
Abandonment of violence
Security co-operation
Cross-border co-operation
Recognition of both identities
Inter-governmental co-operation
Institutional role for the RoI
Power-sharing ( )
Inter-island co-operation
Devolution of powers

Wolff identifies this issue as being implicitly addressed in the Sunningdale Agreement

Constitutional relevance
Because the Good Friday Agreement binds the British government on several points of law in Northern
Ireland, it has de facto become a part of Constitution of the United Kingdom. Legal commentator David Allen
Green described it as "a core constitutional text of the UK, and of Ireland [...] of more everyday importance
than hallowed instruments such as, say, Magna Carta of 1215 or the 1689 Bill of Rights".[28]

Because the Agreement commits the government to enshrine the European Convention on Human Rights in
law and allows Northern Irish residents access to the European Court of Human Rights, it required enactment
of the Human Rights Act 1998. Consequently, the Agreement was a significant factor preventing the repeal of
that Act and its replacement with the proposed British Bill of Rights that Prime Minister David Cameron had
promised.[28]

The Agreement also makes reference to the UK and Ireland as "partners in the European Union", and it was
argued in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union that the Agreement meant that the
consent of Northern Ireland's voters was required to leave the European Union (Brexit). The UK Supreme
Court unanimously held that this was not the case,[29] but the Agreement has nevertheless strongly shaped the
form of Brexit.

During the negotiations on Britain's planned 2019 withdrawal from the European Union, the EU produced a
position paper on its concerns regarding support of the Good Friday Agreement by the UK during Brexit. The
position paper addresses topics including the avoidance of a hard border, the North-South cooperation between
Ireland and Northern Ireland, the birthright of all of the people of Northern Ireland (as set out in the
Agreement), and the Common Travel Area.[30][31] Anyone born in Northern Ireland, and thus entitled to an
Irish passport by the Good Friday Agreement, will also be able to retain EU citizenship after Brexit.[32] Under
the European Union negotiating directives for Brexit, the UK was asked to satisfy the other EU members that
these topics had been addressed in order to progress to the second stage of Brexit negotiations. In order to
protect North-South co-operation and avoid controls on the Irish border, the UK, led by Prime Minister
Theresa May, agreed to protect the Agreement in all its parts and "in the absence of agreed solutions, the
United Kingdom would maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union
which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the
1998 Agreement", with the acknowledgement that this is "[u]nder the caveat that nothing is agreed until
everything is agreed".[28][33][34][35] This provision formed part of a UK-EU deal which was rejected by the
British parliament on three occasions.[36] May's successor, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, initially called the
"Irish backstop" to be removed from the proposed agreement,[37] but he eventually accepted it after a new deal
between the UK and the EU was brokered on 17 October 2019.[38][39]

See also
Unionism in Ireland -- "Sunningdale Agreement and the Ulster Workers' Strike", "1998 Good
Friday Agreement".
David Trimble
John Hume
Downing Street Declaration
Sentence Review Commission

Notes
1. Wolff identifies the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ulster Unionist Party, SDLP, Alliance
Party as signatories to the Sunningdale Agreement. He identifies the United Kingdom, the
Republic of Ireland, Ulster Unionist Party, Ulster Democratic Party, Progressive Unionist Party,
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, Labour, Alliance Party, Sinn Féin and the SDLP as
signatories to the Belfast Agreement.

References
1. North-South Ministerial Council: Annual Report (2001) in Ulster Scots (https://www.northsouth
ministerialcouncil.org/sites/northsouthministerialcouncil.org/files/publications/nsmc_annual_re
port_2001-opt.pdf)
2. "BBC - History - The Good Friday Agreement" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/good_frida
y_agreement). Retrieved 10 June 2017.
3. "SINN FEIN ENDORSES PEACE PACT" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/19
98/05/11/sinn-fein-endorses-peace-pact/d7e0c25c-8c54-405f-b936-514d7f95f878/).
Washington Post. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
4. "Sinn Féin's delegates endorse North Ireland peace agreement" (http://www.deseretnews.com/
article/629268/Sinn-Feins-delegates-endorse-North-Ireland-peace-agreement.html?pg=all). 11
May 1998. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
5. "Good Friday Agreement: The peace deal that ended the Northern Ireland Troubles 20 years
ago" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/good-friday-agreement-what-is-it-norther
n-ireland-belfast-1998-sinn-fein-the-troubles-a8278156.html). Independent. Retrieved
21 January 2019.
6. Austen Morgan (2000). "The Belfast Agreement - a practical legal analysis" (http://www.cain.uls
t.ac.uk/events/peace/morgan/index.html). Conflict Archive on the INternet (CAIN). Retrieved
28 October 2011.
 7. Aughey, Arthur: The politics of Northern Ireland: beyond the Belfast Agreement. Routledge,
2005, p. 148. ISBN 0-415-32788-1
8. Austen Morgan, The Hand of History? Legal Essays on the Belfast Agreement, The Belfast
Press Limited, 2011 pg. 7
9. Lerner, Hanna (2011). Making Constitutions in Deeply Divided Societies. Cambridge University
Press. p. 188. ISBN 1139502921.
10. Annex 2 of the British-Irish Agreement (Good Friday Agreement)
11. "Prisoner Release: Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement | Peace Accords Matrix" (https://p
eaceaccords.nd.edu/provision/prisoner-release-northern-ireland-good-friday-agreement).
peaceaccords.nd.edu. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
12. Janine A. Levy (2007), Terrorism Issues and Developments, Nova Publishers, p. 192
13. Loyalist weapons put 'beyond use' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/81218
42.stm), BBC News, 27 June 2009
14. "BRITISH-IRISH AGREEMENT ACT, 1999 (COMMENCEMENT) ORDER, 1999, S.I. No. 377
of 1999" (http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/si/0377.html). Irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved
28 January 2010.
15. "BRITISH-IRISH AGREEMENT (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1999 (COMMENCEMENT) ORDER,
1999" (http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/si/0378.html). Irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved
28 January 2010.
16. "The Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Appointed Day) Order 1999" (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/
19993208.htm). Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
17. "The Agreement" (https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/ourrolesandpolicies/norther
nireland/good-friday-agreement-1.pdf) (PDF). Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 17 June
2012.. The British-Irish Agreement begins at p. 35
18. "Constitutional issues" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/history/stateapart/agree
ment/constitutional/constitutional1.shtml). BBC website - A State Apart. BBC. Retrieved
28 January 2010.
19. "The Irish Times", April 27, 1998
20. "Paramilitary arms destroyed" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/2
38229.stm). BBC News. 18 December 1998. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
21. Ó Ceallaigh, Daltún, Along The road to Irish unity? (http://homepage.eircom.net/~mheas/id-art.h
tm)
22. Wilford, Rick (2001).Context and Content: Sunningdale and Belfast Compared (http://www.stef
anwolff.com/publications/sunningdale-and-belfast-compared). Oxford University Press, p.1
23. Wilford, pp. 4-5
24. Daugherty Rasnic, Carol (2003). Northern Ireland: can Sean and John live in peace?
Brandylane Publishers Inc, p. 173. ISBN 1-883911-55-9
25. McKearney, Tommy (2011) The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament. Pluto Press,
p. 184. ISBN 978-0-7453-3074-7
26. Austen Morgan, 'From Belfast to St. Andrews', included in 'The Northern Ireland Question: the
peace process and the Belfast Agreement', Bassingstoke, 2009, p. 385
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External links
Full text of the Good Friday Agreement (http://peacemaker.un.org/node/1697), UN Peacemaker
All peace agreements for the United Kingdom (http://peacemaker.un.org/document-search?key
s=&field_padate_value%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=&field_pacountry_tid=United+Kingdom),
UN Peacemaker
North-South Ministerial Council (http://www.northsouthministerialcouncil.org/)
British-Irish Council (http://www.british-irishcouncil.org/)
Irish Government - British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (https://web.archive.org/web/201
01207060951/http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/home/index.aspx?id=26690)
Inside Out: An Integrative Critique of the Northern Ireland Peace Process (http://www.usip.org/e
vents/inside-out-integrative-critique-the-northern-ireland-peace-process) U.S. Institute of
 Peace, July 2006
Address given at the Exchange of Notifications ceremony, whereby the Republic of Ireland
dropped its territorial claim to Northern Ireland, Iveagh House, Dublin, 2 December 1999 (http://
cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/docs/da21299.htm)
Morgan, Austen (2000). The Belfast Agreement: A Practical Legal Analysis (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20150926012213/http://www.austenmorgan.com/Assets/PDFs/Belfast_Agreement.p
df) (PDF). The Belfast Press. Archived from the original (http://www.austenmorgan.com/Assets/
PDFs/Belfast_Agreement.pdf) (PDF) on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.

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