IRA Peace Settlement Essay Example For Students

IRA Peace Settlement Essay The Irish Republican Army, also known as the IRA, is a parliamentary and nationalist organization that opposes the connection of Northern Ireland to Great Britain. The IRA is also dedicated to the creation of a single unified Irish state. The name IRA derived from the veterans of the Easter Battles of 1916. The battle was fought for support of Irish independence. Accordingly the IRA became the political division of the Sinn Fein party. The political leaders of Britain and Ireland, negotiated a treaty that incorporated 26 of Ireland’s counties as the Irish Free State. The remainder of Ireland, remained part of the United Kingdom. The Irish Republican Army began to decline after Eamon de Valera became a prime minister and took over the Irish government. The IRA and the Irish state were in constant conflict, during the 1930s and 1940s. The IRA started to concentrate on Northern Ireland in the 1950s. The IRA tried to gain favor from Northern Ireland, but failed. In 1969 the IRA started new radical social reforms in Northern Ireland, and the British government couldn’t overcome them after a dozen years.This crisis also allowed the IRA to make a drastic comeback. The Irish Republican Army was split into two groups.The officials, which promoted a Socialist Ireland by democratic means, and provisionals, that promoted terrorism.In 1972 the Provisional IRA’s terrorist tactics led to the downfall of the Northern Ireland government. From 1972 to 1994 the Provisional IRA maintained their campaign on terminating British victims in Northern Ireland and Britain. On August 31, 1994, the Irish Republican Army announced a cease-fire. This would affect the 25-year-old battle against British domination of Northern Ireland. This cease-fire came about from several years of confidential meetings between the IRA and the British government. This arrangement for peace is called the â€Å"Downing Street Declaration.†The controversy between Northern Ireland and Britain began with Roman Catholic objections against favoritism by the protestant majority in the country. British troops were sent into Northern Ireland to patrol the country. They still remained there in 1994. The Catholic minority wanted a reunion with the Republic of Ireland, which was mainly Catholic. The Protestants of Northern Ireland resisted the reunification. The IRA gave no amount of time for the duration of the cease fire, nor did they surrender their weapons. There were two earlier cease-fires in 1972 and 1975, but they failed to last. Nationalists, supporters of the Irish Republican Army and others have grown tired of the Northern Ireland conflict, and celebrated the announcement of the cease-fire. The IRA has commanded its units to obey a complete halt of military actions. In the first public meeting between Gerry Adams (the leader of Sinn Fein), Albert Reynolds (the Irish Republic’s prime minister), and John Hume (the leader of Northern Ireland’s Catholic nationalist), the British government was not pleased with the stating of the cease-fire. The British government was warily optimistic about the conference. A political scandal led to the collapse of the Irish government in Dublin. Throughout the years, Dublin acted as a halfway house between the Irish, British and American governments. The prime minister Albert Reynolds was replaced by John Bruton. A terrorist, loyalist and Protestant militia called the Ulster Defense Association shot and killed a Catholic man. The loyalists work with the sympathetic Protestant officers in the Royal Ulster Constabulary.This proved that the IRA was not the only forceful group in the Northern Ireland crisis. The Protestant militia soon after the killing called a cease-fire. This group was responsible for more deaths than the IRA, in the two years before the cease-fire was called. Ian Paisley, a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, protested that the IRA must surrender their arms before any contact between the IRA and the British government can proceed. Paisley also continued to disapprove the idea of representatives of Sinn Fein to take part in all the meetings dealing with the future of Northern Ireland. Minds Are Open Only When Hearts Are Open Argumentative EssayThe political leaders of Britain and Ireland agreed to a peace agreement that would end violence. It gave the Catholic minority more privileges in the north, and it confirmed that the Protestants would not be dominated by the Catholic south. It addressed the largest reform in Ireland’s political structures since it was split in 1921. The result of the arrangement took place on June 25, 1998. This also created a Northern Ireland Assembly, a council for the North and the South. The people of Ireland voted in support of the Good Friday peace agreements, that assured adjustment in the way Northern Ireland will be governed. Majority of both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic voted yes. To test the peace agreement the â€Å"Real IRA† planted a bomb, which killed 29 peoples and injured hundreds. The â€Å"Real IRA† apologized for the attack and announced a truce of its own. More killings continued within the Protestant and Catholic communities, and this raised the concern that the violence would continue despite the peace process. The Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 reached an accord for an all-party cabinet. This gave way for the new system of government. The plan was put forth by David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, and his deputy from the Catholic Social Democratic and Labor Party, Seamus Mallon. The plan was approved by a vote, but it was almost ruined by Protestant deputies who wanted the IRA to start decommissioning its large weapon stashes before the Assembly undertook power. On April 1, 1999, Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, and Bertie Ahern, Irish Prime Minister, predicted they would find a solution to the Protestant-Catholic Administration for Northern Ireland. Ahern and Blair tried to convince the other parties to agree on a â€Å"national day of reconciliation.†This would start the means of disarmament for the IRA and other British gangs. David Trimble would not get his party to support Sinn Fein until they would disarm. Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Fein chairman, claimed that the agreement does not require the IRA to disarm. McLaughlin also stated that negotiations on disarmament could be brought about if Sinn Fein politicians could have power in the new government. After four nights of negotiations at the all-party peace talks in Belfast no solution was found, and Tony Blair called for a break. The Anglo-Irish summit was reconvened on April 14, 1999. The political leaders of Irish and British governments tried to break the deadlock over the issue of disarmament. There was no proof that pointed to an early progress between Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists conflict. The issue of disarmament was the biggest conflict since the Good Friday agreement. At Belfast on May 3, 1999, the Irish and British governments, led by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, again tried to negotiate a new plan to end the stalemate. The plan would organization a transitional executive made up of ministers from all parties, and it would have six-month limit for settlement on the issue of disarmament. The proposal also stated that the Sinn Fein party would have until May 2000 to disarm, and all arms have to be shed before entering the executive. Though the cease-fires are maintaining, there are occasional cases of violence from the rivals of the Good Friday agreement. Also on May 3, 1999, Bertie Ahern denied information that the Irish and the British were contemplating on a plan to form a new executive. The IRA has dismissed the pleas to disarm by comparing disarmament to degrading surrender. Years of negotiating and devising new plans to solve the Northern Ireland crisis has failed to be solved. After solving the problem of the cease-fire, the problem of disarmament still consists. Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern have not yet found a solution for the issue of disarmament. The Irish Republican Army believes disarmament to be surrender and the Ulster Unionists believes disarmament to be a scare tactic. Therefore, giving each other no choice but to disagree and stagnate.