In last year’s elections, the republican party “Sinn Fein” received the largest support for the first time in history, and according to many experts, this is a signal that in time Northern Ireland’s withdrawal from the kingdom and union with Ireland is inevitable.
High-ranking guests – US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – are waiting to arrive in Belfast today, writes “Reuters”. As well as taking part in a series of ceremonial protocol events, they are also expected to meet with leaders of Northern Ireland’s leading parties to help resolve the province’s protracted political crisis. The BBC says that this crisis is a direct threat to the agreement, which was signed on April 10, 1998, or Good Friday, because the authorities in Northern Ireland have not been functioning as they should for a long time.
Since last February, the work of the Northern Ireland Assembly has been boycotted by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which unites the provincial Protestants and categorically insists that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom forever. This party cannot accept the fact that after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, a situation has arisen when Northern Ireland’s commercial and other contacts with Ireland, which is part of the EU, are much easier than the relevant cooperation with other parts of the kingdom – England, Scotland and Wales.
The so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, which was part of the Brexit deal, was amended this year to ease the movement of goods between the kingdom’s provinces after long disputes between London and Brussels, but even after the agreement was accepted by the British parliament, the DUP still does not want to accept it. This party believes that Northern Ireland is being isolated from the kingdom only to keep the province’s border with Ireland open.
But both this open border and the DUP’s participation in the provincial government as the largest so-called loyalist party are set out in the Good Friday Agreement. Last weekend, British Prime Minister Sunack emphasized that everything possible should be done so that the Northern Ireland Assembly could resume work. If this does not happen, the province, just like before the 1998 agreement, may come under the direct administration of the British government. But this in turn would provoke protests from Catholic Republicans. Officials in London have done everything possible to avoid such a scenario. Over the past 14 months, a number of ‘deadlines’ have been set for when the Northern Ireland Assembly should resume, and these are regularly extended. Now Prime Minister Sunak is talking about “a couple of months” during which the political crisis should be resolved. On Sunday, he once again urged the DUP to stop the destruction and accept the current situation as a reality – regarding Northern Ireland, the best possible solution has been reached within the framework of “Brexit”. Biden is also ready to point this out, but “Politico.eu” writes that his planned visit to the Northern Ireland Assembly building could be viewed quite controversially, because after all, this institution is currently “on break”.
In the meantime, the British media have expressed surprise and bewilderment at the fact that Biden planned to stay in Northern Ireland only until Wednesday evening, and then go to Ireland, where he will spend three days. However, it should be recalled that the US president’s ancestors (both on his father’s and mother’s lines) are from Ireland, and many of his relatives live in this country and will be visited during the visit.
But coming back to the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, it is worth reminding why such an agreement was needed in the first place. In 1921, most of the island, which was locally called Eire, became an independent country – Ireland, but its north, the so-called Ulster, remained under British rule. And that’s where the arguments and misunderstandings started, which eventually led to violence. The people of Northern Ireland split into two factions. Catholics, who were a minority, pushed for union with the rest of Catholic Ireland, while Protestants wanted to remain in the kingdom.
The balance of power was long in favor of the Protestants, who were supported by the British police and army. Irish Catholics at this time had to feel like second class citizens, no one cared about their opinion. This attitude of London led to a reaction, and a radical one, writes “Reuters”. The republicans, believing that no other methods would help, launched a campaign of terror, carried out by the military branch of “Sinn Fein” – the Irish Republican Army (IRA). British forces stationed in Northern Ireland at the time responded with even more decisive brutality, firing on demonstrators and ravaging Catholic neighborhoods.
However, at the end of the second half of the last century, a moment came when it became clear to both warring parties that this fight should not continue any longer. Of course, mediators had to be involved in the negotiations, and the factor of US President Bill Clinton, who was so popular around the world at that time, also played a certain role. He did not take part in these talks himself, but he delegated to Belfast former congressman George Mitchell, who spent 22 months in Northern Ireland trying to reach a settlement
