25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

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What is Good Friday Agreement?

• The Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, was signed on 10 April 1998 by the British and Irish governments, and confirmed by referendums in Ireland and Northern Ireland in May the same year. 
• The agreement established devolved political power-sharing structures for the nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland, and brought the 30-year period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles, to an end.
• Issues relating to sovereignty, governance, discrimination, military and paramilitary groups, justice and policing were central to the agreement. 
• It restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of “power sharing” and it included acceptance of the principle of consent, commitment to civil and political rights, cultural parity of esteem, police reform, paramilitary disarmament and early release of paramilitary prisoners, followed by demilitarization. 
• The agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Ireland and Ireland (“North–South”), and between Ireland and the United Kingdom (“East–West”).

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