The Belfast Agreement.

The Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement and occasionally as the Stormont Agreement as it was at Stormont Castle in Northern Ireland were it was signed, was a significant political development in the peace process of Northern Ireland.

It was co signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998 which happened to be Good Friday, by both the Irish and British governments and was duly counter signed by a large majority of Northern Ireland political parties.

On 23 May of the same year the Agreement was endorsed by the majority of voters in Northern Ireland at an election. On that same day, Irish voters in the Republic of Ireland voted separately to change their government’s constitution in line with what was agreed at Stormont. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was the only large political group that opposed the Agreement at that time. The Agreement entered into law on December the 2nd in the following year 1999.

The agreement basically agreed to power sharing between parties, a rejection of violence to achieve political ends, more equality in policing and jobs and a release of all paramilitary prisoners..and so Belfast’s tourist and economic boom began.

Return to Belfast City overview from Belfast Agreement.