Northern Ireland yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement, which ended three decades of devastating inter-communal conflict, and hosts US President Joe Biden in Belfast on Tuesday.
On April 10, 1998, Good Friday, pro-Irish nationalist leaders – mainly Catholic – and pro-British unionists – mainly Protestants – reached a peace agreement after marathon negotiations involving the governments of London, Dublin and Washington. The agreement ended three decades of violence that claimed more than 3,500 lives. A quarter of a century later, the atmosphere is more one of reflection than celebration. Yesterday was quiet, except in the border city of Londonderry, where there were riots after an attack on police in an undeclared parade of dissident republicans.
A vehicle was set on fire in the incidents, which left no one injured. The police called for calm. “What a shame”, reacted the Northern Irish deputy Kellie Armstrong, who considered that they were acts committed “by some who want to return Northern Ireland to a gloomy period”. Several political figures will visit Northern Ireland this week, including Biden, who is of Irish origin, and will be received by British Prime Minister Risihi Sunak.
In the years after the deal was signed, Northern Irish paramilitaries were disarmed, the militarized land border was dismantled and British troops withdrew.
Sunak noted that this anniversary was the occasion to “celebrate those who made difficult decisions, accepted compromises and showed leadership.”
The commemorations take place at a time when regional institutions are paralyzed due to disagreements linked to the UK’s departure from the European Union (EU). Under the peace agreement, Republicans and Unionists must share power in these institutions.
But the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) has been boycotting them for more than 13 months to protest against the special provisions applied to the region after Brexit, effective from the beginning of 2021. The DUP fears that these provisions, which keep Northern Ireland in the market only European to avoid the return of a physical border with the Republic of Ireland – a member of the EU – alienate the region from the United Kingdom and make a unified Ireland, the objective of the republicans, more likely.
In an already difficult context, Northern Ireland raised its terror threat alert level after the attempted assassination of a police officer in February, claimed by dissident republicans. The attack served as a stark reminder of the kind of violence that was once commonplace in this region of 1.9 million people.
For Biden’s visit to the province, more than 300 agents from the rest of the United Kingdom will be mobilized. The American president will then visit the Republic of Ireland, the capital, Dublin, but also the counties of Louth (east) and Mayo (west), where his ancestors came from when they emigrated in the mid-19th century, fleeing like so many others from an Ireland ravaged by famine, to settle in Pennsylvania.
