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On 31 August 1994, twenty-five years after British troops were first deployed on the streets of Belfast and Londonderry/Derry in aid of the civil power, the Provisional Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire. The main loyalist paramilitary organisations followed suit on 13 October, raising hopes that Northern Ireland's latest "troubles", as eras of violent instability in Ireland are known, were over. However, these expectations were shaken on 9 February 1996, when the Provisional IRA announced the end of its cease-fire shortly before its volunteers detonated a bomb at Canary Wharf in London. This was followed by further acts of violence in England and at the British army's main base in Northern Ireland. Despite this, the peace between the paramilitaries in Northern Ireland itself held. The Provisional IRA restored its cease-fire on 20 July 1997 on the same terms as its first cessation of 1994.
Against the backdrop of this second ceasefire, talks took place among Northern Ireland's main political parties, apart from two unionist parties which boycotted the process on the entry into the negotiations of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional IRA. These were brought to a successful conclusion on Good Friday 1998 (10 April) when the chairperson of the talks, former US Senator George Mitchell, was able to announce that the parties had arrived at an agreement.
The "Good Friday Agreement" (officially the "Belfast Agreement") provides for crosscommunity government in Northern Ireland, a North-South Ministerial Council overseeing the operation of cross-border bodies in a number of fields, and a British-Irish Council promoting co-operation among the devolved governments of the United Kingdom, the British and Irish governments and the political authorities in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The agreement also provides that Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom and shall not cease to be so without the consent of a majority in the province. It also contains commitments to the promotion of equality and social inclusion.
Referendums in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland followed the achievement of the settlement. The Belfast Agreement won overwhelming support in the Republic. The vote was not simply symbolic as it entailed changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution, subject to implementation of the other...