1500-1900
| 1900-89
| 1990-1997
| 1998
| 1999-2000
|
The Beginning of the End (1990-97) |
| 1990-94 |
1991: IRA mortar attack on 10 Downing Street. No one injured.
1992: IRA car bomb in City of London financial district kills three
and injures 91. Five Catholics at a bookmakers are killed by guerilla's.
Three more Catholics are killed at a Sinn Féin office by an off-duty RUC
officer.
1993: IRA bombs in English town of Warrington and in central London kill three
people. IRA bombs busy shopping street in Protestant part of Belfast, killing
10. Protestant extremists kill seven Halloween revelers in revenge. In peace-seeking
Anglo-Irish Downing Street Declaration signed by the
British and Irish governments in December, Britain says it would not
block an end to British rule if a majority wanted it, and offers Sinn Féin
(or
any violent party) a seat at peace talks if IRA (or respective) violence ends.
1994: IRA announces ceasefire in September, with Pro-British "Loyalist"
guerrillas following suit weeks later. British officials hold first open
meeting with Sinn Féin in more than 70 years. Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin granted a US visa. Six Catholics killed by loyalist paramilitaries.
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| 1995-97 |
1995: Britain ends 23-year ban on ministerial talks with Sinn Féin
but
within weeks Sinn Féin breaks off discussions. In November, British and Irish
governments set February 1996 as target date for start of all-party talks and
establishing a commission to study handover of all guerrilla weapons. The peace process founders as unionists
and the British government demand that the IRA surrender weapons
prior to negotiations.
1996: Former U.S. senator George Mitchell proposes talks alongside phased
surrender of guerrilla weapons. British Prime Minister John Major, enraging
republicans, proposes elections in Northern Ireland to pave way for talks.
The IRA ends an 18-month cease-fire on Feb. 9, 1996, saying the
British are not serious about peace by exploding a bomb in East London's
Docklands district, killing two people and injuring 100. Multi-party talks on
the future of Northern Ireland begin in Belfast in June but Sinn Féin is
excluded because of IRA violence. IRA detonates bomb in Manchester, England,
shopping center, injuring 200.
May 21, 1997: Newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair renews talks
with Sinn Féin.
July 19, 1997: The IRA announces "unequivocal" ceasefire, two months
after Tony Blair's Labour party sweeps John Major's Conservatives from office
and Blair promises Sinn Féin a seat at talks and sets a May 1998 deadline for
a settlement. Six weeks later Sinn Féin joins peace talks for first time.
September 1997: Sinn Féin agrees to
abide by the Mitchell Principles—six points of total disarmament and
nonviolence to which all participants in multiparty talks must adhere. They
are named for former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, who chairs the political
talks. Sinn Féin is invited to participate in the talks.
October 1997: For the first time in 25 years, unionists, republicans,
nationalists and loyalists sit down together to talk. British Prime Minister
Tony Blair shakes hands with Sinn Féin leaders for the first time in 70 years.
December 1997: Gerry Adams is welcomed by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair to Number 10 Downing Street in London. He is the first Sinn Féin
leader to go there since Michael Collins visited Lloyd George in 1921. The
worst violence since the July cease-fire breaks out in Londonderry, Northern
Ireland. Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright, a.k.a. King Rat, is
killed inside Maze prison by Irish republican prisoners. Wright’s Loyalist
Volunteer Force carry out revenge shootings—one within 24 hours of his
death and another on New Year's Eve.
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|
Tangible Peace (1998) |
| Leading to Peace |
January 1998: The peace talks stall as
loyalist prisoners in Maze prison withdraw their support for talks and
threaten new violence. British Secretary for Northern Ireland Mowlam marches
in to the prison and wins back their support. The Loyalist Volunteer Force
murders the husband of Gerry Adams’ niece. Seven Catholics and two
Protestants are killed in a wave of revenge murders over the next few weeks.
The Loyalist Ulster Democratic Party has to leave the peace talks because its
paramilitary wing admits to three killings.
February 1998: The IRA is blamed for two Protestant killings and Sinn
Féin is
temporarily suspended from talks.
1998: British government announces independent judicial inquiry into Bloody
Sunday killings of 1972. Eighteen people killed over three months in spate of
tit-for-tat violence between Protestant and Republican splinter guerrilla
groups outside the ceasefires. Sinn Féin and pro-British UDP political party
briefly suspended from peace talks because of attacks allegedly involving
their guerrillas allies. On March 25, Mitchell says time for discussion is over
and sets April 9 as the date for parties to reach agreement.
March 1998: Two lifelong friends, one Catholic and one Protestant,
are murdered by Protestant gunmen in a Catholic pub. One of the suspected
killers is murdered by fellow loyalist inmates at Maze prison for mistaking a
Protestant for a Catholic. Adams meets again with Blair at 10 Downing Street.
Blair says a settlement is "agonizingly near" and asks Sinn Féin
to rejoin talks. Adams and other multiparty leaders in the talks come to
the United States to meet with Clinton.
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| Tales of a Peace Accord |
April 10, 1998: Good Friday, a historic peace accord is reached 17
hours after the deadline is passed at talks between the British and Irish
governments and eight political parties. It calls for links with Britain to be
maintained but lays the groundwork for a new assembly in Northern Ireland,
and new links to the Irish Republic in the south. Extremist splinter groups
persist with sporadic killings and several bombs are defused on both sides of
the border in the run-up to referendums on the accord on May 22.
May 1998:
A new Republican paramilitary group emerges, mainly formed by dissident members of the Irish Republican Army.
The rIRA issues a statement saying that its ceasefire is over and military attacks
will resume, declaring war on the British Cabinet.
May 10, 1998: Sinn Féin members change their constitution to allow candidates to take their places in the proposed new Northern Ireland
Assembly and approve the Good Friday Agreement. Removal of the policy of ‘abstentionism’
is a historical move ending 77 years of refusing to participate in the government in Northern
Ireland. Four convicted
IRA guerrillas are released from jail for 24 hours to the conference. They
get a hero's welcome, to the fury of Northern Irish Protestants.
May 19, 1998:
To rally support for the 'Yes' campaign, John Hume,
leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party,
meet on the stage at a U2 concert at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. Bono, lead singer
of U2, joined the two party leaders on stage and held their arms aloft. This
concert gave the 'Yes' campaign a much needed boost.
May 22-23, 1998: On the 22nd referendums on whether
to accept the peace accord were scheduled in Northern
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This was the first all-Ireland poll since the general election of 1918.
Voters flocked to polling stations north
and south of the Irish border. Final results in Northern Ireland showed
71.1% in favor of the peace agreement, but the Protestant community was
still deeply
split. The count from the Republic of Ireland showed 94.4% backed the deal.
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|
A Fine Line for Peace
|
July 1, 1998:
During the first session of the new Northern Ireland Assembly David Trimble was elected 'First Minister Designate' of the new Assembly. Seamus
Mallon was elected 'Deputy First Minister Designate'.
July 5, 1998:
The Orange Order parade at Drumcree became a flash point for religious divisions. The parade passed from the centre of
Portadown, County Armagh, along the edge of a Nationalist area to the Church of Ireland parish church where the Orangemen attended a service.
Afterwards, as they attempted to walk along the mainly Catholic Garvaghy
Road, the route was blocked by the police and the British Army creating a stand-off.
By that evening the number of Orangemen protesting the stand-off increased
and there were street protests across Northern Ireland in support. Roads were blocked, cars set on
fire and a number of Catholic homes were attacked in Belfast. The British government said that it would "hold the line" against those protesting.
July 6, 1998: Through the early morning hours over 10,000 gathered at
Drumcree, to protest the decision not to allow the Orange Order parade to pass. Violence flared in a number of Loyalist areas of Northern Ireland.
Roads across the region were again blocked and some Catholic families were
intimidated or attacked.
July 12, 1998:
In Ballymoney, County Antrim, three young Catholic boys were killed after their
home was petrol bombed in an attack carried out by Loyalists. Rev. William Bingham,
Deputy Grand Chaplain of the Orange Order, called for the Drumcree protest to
end and said the march would be "a hallow victory" as it would
take place in the shadows of three little white coffins. David Trimble and Church of Ireland
Primate Robin Eames also called for an end to the protest. The Orange Order rejected these and other similar calls.
August 6, 1998: Marjorie
Mowlam, Secretary of State of Northern Ireland, said that she believed that the "war is over".
Two days later, on the 8th, the Loyalist Volunteer Force issued a statement that said "our war is over". This was a follow-up to the announcement of a ceasefire on 15 May 1998.
August 15, 1998: Twenty-nine people died
from an explosion in Omagh, County Tyrone. This was the single worst incident
of violence in Northern Ireland since the beginning of the conflict. The dead
included family members, where one family had lost members from three generations, and close friends, and a number of tourists from the Republic of Ireland and Spain. One woman who died was pregnant with twins. There were hundreds
more injured, some of whom lost limbs or their sight. A misleading phone
call and the RUC incorrectly directing people towards the bomb worsened
the attack. There was outrage and shock across the entire population of Northern Ireland. Many people expressed the hope that this incident would mark a turning point in the
conflict.
August 18, 1998:
The "real" Irish Republican Army announced that "all military operations have been suspended"
effective at midnight. Earlier the rIRA claimed responsibility for the Omagh bombing but denied that it had set out to kill people.
On September 7, they announced a "complete cessation" of
their campaign of violence.
August 22, 1998: The Irish National Liberation Army
announced that it was to go on ceasefire beginning at midday.
September 1998:
Gerry Adams announced that: "Sinn Féin believe the violence we have seen must be for all of us now a thing of the past, over, done with and gone." David Trimble in his role as First Minister Designate, invited
Adams to a round-table meeting. This meeting took place on the 10th. They
both described the meeting as cordial and businesslike. About Trimble, Adams said: "He is a man I can do business with" but
also repeated his position that he could not deliver on decommissioning. In an interview the Irish Republican Army said that it would not decommission its weapons and claimed that Unionists were using the issue to try to re-negotiate the Good Friday Agreement.
Trimble repeated in his view that decommissioning of Irish Republican Army weapons was necessary before the UUP would enter an Executive with Sinn Féin.
Adams replied that there was nothing in the Good Friday Agreement that prevented the immediate establishment of an Executive which would include Sinn Féin
members as of right.
September 11, 1998: The first of the paramilitary prisoners were
released from jails in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday
Agreement. Seven prisoners, including three Republican and three Loyalist,
were released in a program that was expected to take two years to
complete.
October 17, 1998:
The Norwegian Nobel Institute announced that the 1998 Nobel Prize for Peace would be jointly
awarded to John Hume and David Trimble for their work on the Good Friday
Peace Agreement.
November 14, 1998:
In an address at the annual SDLP conference, John Hume
said Unionists and Nationalists had at last taken their future into their hands and seized control of their history, rather than
letting history control them.
During the conference the SDLP showed some support for the UUP saying it would help to remove Sinn Féin
from the Executive if the IRA failed to decommission within the specified time-scale.
However, the party also said it would not support any attempt by Unionists to rewrite the Good Friday
Agreement.
November 19, 1998:
The Northern Ireland Act, implementing the Good Friday Agreement, became law.
December 10, 1998: John Hume
and David Trimble received their Nobel Peace Prizes at an awards ceremony in the City Hall, Oslo.
Read their Nobel Lectures by clicking on their names. For more about the
Nobel Peace Prize, click here, or
visit the Norwegian Nobel Institute website at www.nobel.no.
December 18, 1998: The Loyalist Volunteer Force handed over some weapons to be destroyed to the International Decommissioning Body. The LVF was the first paramilitary group to voluntarily hand over its weapons.
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Conflict Timeline was compiled from
information gathered on the web by Matthew Schlukebier.
A more extensive chronology is available on the CAIN Project Web Site
(click here)
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