What is the good friday agreement?

The Good Friday Agreement is the 1998 peace deal that helped end the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Signed on 10 April 1998, it set up a power-sharing Assembly and Executive and created cross-border bodies with Ireland. Northern Ireland stays in the UK unless a majority there votes otherwise.

The Troubles were a conflict lasting about thirty years from the late 1960s, in which over 3,500 people were killed. The Agreement was reached after long talks between the UK and Irish governments and most Northern Ireland parties. It is also called the Belfast Agreement. Its main architects included the leaders of the UK and Irish governments, Northern Ireland party leaders and a US mediator.

It was approved by referendums on 22 May 1998, by 71% in Northern Ireland and 94% in the Republic of Ireland. Ireland dropped its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland. People born in Northern Ireland can identify as British, Irish or both, and hold either passport or both. The Agreement also created a Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and led to reforms of policing.

The deal has three strands: power sharing within Northern Ireland, North-South cooperation with Ireland, and East-West links between Britain and Ireland. It also led to paramilitary weapons being put beyond use and early release of some prisoners. Brexit put pressure on the Agreement because of the need to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.