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The Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland is a Political Success

The peace agreement between Protestants and Catholics in 1998 ended widespread violence and terror in Northern Ireland. Three UiA researchers are launching a new book about the legacy of the deal.

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Jan Erik Mustad, David Herbert og Charles Armstrong, photo
Editors Jan Erik Mustad, David Herbert and Charles Armstrong publish their book in the book series Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict with the British publisher Palgrave Macmillan.
Forsiden av boken The Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement

The Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement.

“The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was, in many ways, a rebirth for Northern Ireland. It ended almost thirty years of widespread violence and terror. There has been sporadic uneasiness and violence after the deal as well, but not to the same extent as before,” said Charles Armstrong as he presented the new book at the University of Agder in early December.

Armstrong is a professor at the University of Agder (UiA) and, together with senior lecturer Jan Erik Mustad and Professor David Herbert, both affiliated with UiA, is editor of the book The Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement. The book has been published as part of a series of studies about compromises following conflicts by the British publisher Palgrave Macmillan.

Literature and politics

Charles Armstrong, foto

Charles Armstrong.

The book is a multidisciplinary study in which various researchers within politics, sociology, history, film and literature discuss different views on the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement.

“Diversity has been one challenge during the editing of the book. Here, several writers have been writing in different ways and from different perspectives, but the different voices have emerged as a strength of the book,” said Armstrong.

The three researchers from UiA have written a preface and their own essay in the book. Charles Armstrong has written about the desire for change and has considered how Northern Irish authors have assessed the deal.

Different views on the agreement

“There is a long tradition in Irish literature for writing homages or the opposite about political leaders. The writers of literary fiction books are not united in what they believe the Good Friday Agreement has really meant for the province either. Some are positive and others negative to the deal and the developments in retrospect”, said Armstrong during the presentation.

David Herbert, foto

David Herbert.

David Herbert writes about the future and peace, and presents his own experiences from the time when he lived in Northern Ireland after the peace agreement.

“There are a striking number of walls and barriers over pretty much all of Belfast and Londonderry. The deal has in no way brought Catholics and Protestants closer to each other, but has rather ensured that they live separately,” said Herbert.

The agreement split the people

Jan Erik Mustad writes in his essay about party-political changes in Northern Ireland, and particularly the changes in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) after 1998.

Mustad affirms the impression that Herbert had from his residence in the province, and points out that the thinking behind the deal was such that the different parties were not able to live and work together.

Jan Erik Mustad, foto

Jan Erik Mustad.

“They had to be separated, and there are around 50 walls or fences in Northern Ireland today which separate the groups from one another. They live in peace with each other, but they do not live together”, said Mustad.

He emphasised that the Good Friday Agreement was, and is, a segregation agreement. The groups are separate and live in their own areas, and in this way keep away from one another.

Success deal

Nonetheless, the deal is a victory. The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a victory for compromise. The parties put their prioritised wishes to one side and went for a middle-ground solution. The deal came into being on Good Friday, but the three editors point out in the preface that it would perhaps have been more symbolically correct if it had been signed on Easter Day. The Good Friday Agreement was a new start for Northern Ireland.

There has been peace and, to an extent, reconciliation in Northern Ireland since the deal in 1998 and up until today, but political and ideological struggles about the peace deal continue to arise between Protestants and Catholics.

“The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 is the biggest and most important deal in Northern Ireland in recent times. The agreement put an effective end to the widespread violence in Northern Ireland,” said Armstrong.

Clinton and Blair

Mustad also reminds us of the high stakes concerning the deal in Northern Ireland. President Clinton played a certain role, but more central was that of the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair from the British Labour Party.

The Prime Minister had a key role. The agreement has been considered to be one of his greatest political victories. Nonetheless, Blair’s role has been controversial and constantly discussed. This book too delves closely into the positive and negative sides of Blair and his work with the agreement.

20 years of ups and downs 

“1.8 million people live in Northern Ireland, and they have all, in one way or another, been involved in violence, terror, or other dubious acts, or they know somebody who has,” said Mustad.

The Good Friday Agreement went out to all households in Northern Ireland and was the subject of a vote. 70 percent said “yes” to the deal, and since then there has been peace without harmony. There have been ups and downs but, overall, the agreement can be seen as a success.

“The agreement is a success particularly in the sense that it put an end to the 30-year long period from 1968-1998 which is known as The Troubles, and was characterised by hostility between Catholics and Protestants and a great deal of violence and terror,” said Herbert during the presentation of the new book which, in total, contains 15 essays. 

The book series Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict:

The Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement

Northern Irish Politics, Culture and Art after 1998

Charles I. Armstrong, David Herbert and Jan Erik Mustad (eds.)

Palgrave Macmillan, 2018