1500-1900
| 1900-89
| 1990-98
| 1999
| 2000
|
A Taste of the Peace to Come? (1999) |
| Attempts
and Failures in a Trying Time |
April 7, 1999:
Martin McGuinness, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin, said the Irish Republican Army would not accept decommissioning as a precondition to his party's entry into a power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland.
May 6, 1999:
The Ulster Volunteer Force was said to be anxious to see permanent disarmament. It marked a dramatic shift from saying it might never decommission its weapons.
May 15, 1999: British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced June 30, 1999
as the deadline for the formation of an Executive and the devolution of power. His decision
followed the failure of the Assembly members of the Ulster Unionist Party to approve proposals thought to have been agreed by David
Trimble, the Irish Government, the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin.
June 1999:
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said the Irish and British governments would "set aside" the Good Friday Agreement and seek alternative means of political progress if a breakthrough was not made by
June 30, 1999. David Trimble challenged Sinn Féin to get a pledge from the Irish Republican Army to disarm by May 2000. But Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin
McGuinness, said he could not speak on behalf of the Irish Republican Army.
June 30, 1999: The "absolute deadline" set by Prime Minister Blair, passed without the establishment of the Executive. The Prime Minister agreed to an extension.
July 2, 1999: After five days of discussions between the British and Irish Governments at
Stormont, the two governments issued a document called
The Way Forward outlining a way forward to establish an inclusive Executive, and to decommission arms.
July 14, 1999:
The peace process was plunged into crisis when the Ulster Unionist Party challenged the authority and prestige of
Prime Minister Blair. David Trimble indicated after a meeting of the UUP executive that he would not participate in the d'Hondt procedure to appoint ministers to the North's proposed power-sharing Executive.
The next day an attempt to form the Executive of the Northern Ireland Assembly collapsed when David Trimble,
First Minister Designate, and the other UUP Assembly members failed to attend the sitting. An Executive of Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin was formed for a few moments, but was then disbanded because it did not have cross-community participation. Seamus Mallon
tendered his
resignation as Deputy First Minister designate.
July 21, 1999:
The IRA rejected demands for it to decommission its arsenal "in the current political context", but confirmed its "definitive commitment" to the success of the peace process. While
not ruling out the prospect of decommissioning, the IRA declined to confirm whether it supported the Sinn Féin initiative
that it should take place before May 2000.
August 23, 1999:
David Trimble expressed disappointment that the Good Friday Agreement was bogged down in dissension. He said there was no resistance within his Assembly party to setting up a fully inclusive executive, providing decommissioning took place. He restated his willingness to "jump together" with Sinn Féin in forming an Executive.
|
|
A New Government is Born
|
|
September 6, 1999:
Start of Review of Good Friday Agreement:
George Mitchell, former Chairman of the multi-party talks, was in Castle Buildings to open the review of the Good Friday Agreement. He made clear that the review would concentrate specifically on breaking the deadlock over decommissioning and the formation of an executive.
October 28, 1999:
David Trimble and Gerry Adams continued discussions searching for a way out of the decommissioning logjam. They have been trying to put together a package of confidence building steps between their two parties to ensure the success of the Mitchell review.
November 16, 1999:
The Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Féin
both issued statements committing themselves to the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. David
Trimble recognised the legitimate aspirations of Nationalists to pursue a united Ireland and embraced the principles of inclusivity, equality and mutual respect.
Gerry Adams spoke of working with, not against, Unionists in the future. The Social Democratic and Labour Party and other main political parties in Northern Ireland all issued statements endorsing the
Agreement. The next day, the Irish Republican Army issued a statement saying it was committed to peace and acknowledged that the Good Friday Agreement would contribute to a lasting peace.
November 18, 1999:
End of Review of Good Friday Agreement:
After 10 weeks of painstaking negotiations between the pro-agreement parties in Northern Ireland, Senator George Mitchell returned to the United States after issuing a
report on his review. He concluded that the basis now existed for devolution to occur and the formation of an executive to take place.
November 30, 1999:
The House of Lords and the House of Commons both approved a devolution order under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 that
would transfer power from Westminster to the Assembly at Stormont. This ended
the 'Direct Rule' that began in 1972.
December 2, 1999:
A New Government in Northern Ireland: Direct Rule came to an end as powers were devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly. [Devolution took effect as of midnight on 1 December 1999.] At a meeting in Dublin at 9.00am the North-South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Ministerial Council, as set out in the Good Friday Agreement, took effect. At the same time the Anglo-Irish Agreement was replaced by the British-Irish Agreement. At 9.20am Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution were replaced by new Articles. At 3.00pm the new Executive of the Northern Ireland Assembly met for the first time. Present at the meeting were representatives of the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and Sinn Féin. The Democratic Unionist Party refused to attend. At 8.30pm the IRA issued a statement indicating that it would appoint a representative to meet the Decommissioning Body chaired by General de
Chastelain.
|
|
And So It Begins... (2000) |
| The
First Attempt Fails |
January 31, 2000: An independent
disarmament committee reports that the IRA had failed to make progress
toward disarming. This angers unionists who had assumed such progress was
part of the deal Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble sold them on in
December. The IRA says it made no such pledge. Ulster Unionists schedule a
vote on pulling out of the Northern Ireland government. To head off a
general collapse, Britain says it will reimpose direct rule on Feb. 11 if
the impasse is not broken.
February 11, 2000: Unable to break an impasse over IRA
disarmament, Britain suspended the power-sharing cabinet in Northern
Ireland after only 72 days in office and reassumed direct control of the
province. London portrayed the move as a bid to prevent a wider collapse
of the peace process, but nationalists denounced it as a ploy by unionists
to undermine the peace process. However, talks aimed at solving the
dispute continued between Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and the Ulster
Unionists' David Trimble.
February 18-19, 2000: Peace Prize Forum 2000: Striving For Peace: Risk and
Reconciliation
|
| A New
Hope |
May 5, 2000:
The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland announced a plan for restoring power to Northern
Ireland by May 22.
Speaking shortly before midnight following hours of
negotiations with local parties, Ahern and Blair said all sides had agreed to set the "target
date" for resuming power-sharing. (May 22 is the second anniversary of the overwhelming ratification of
the Good Friday peace accord in public referendums.) The historic pact also
made the date the deadline for Northern Ireland's rival paramilitary
groups to disarm. Both Blair and Ahern emphasized that they couldn't force Protestant
politicians to resume sharing power with Sinn Fein. Therefore, they said,
a positive response soon from the IRA would be essential for the
four-party administration to regain its authority.
May 7, 2000: The IRA issued a statement which says they pledge to
“put their arms beyond use” in exchange for implementation of the 1998
Good Friday Peace Accord. The statement allows for the monitoring of these
arms, to verify that they will not be used. This opens the door which may
lead to the reestablishment of the Northern Ireland government. Trimble
has cautioned that he will need a little more evidence of truth before the
celebration can truly begin.
|
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)
|
