Contents
Versión Español
Russian version
Education pack
Partners and events
Key texts and agreements
Maps
Acronyms
Chronology
Profiles
Further reading
Acknowledgements
Additional resources
Accord Northern Ireland project
The signing of the 1998 Belfast Agreement in Northern Ireland was the result of long and arduous negotiations to end 30 years of sectarian violence and political stalemate.
Striking a balance: the Northern Ireland peace process (Accord issue 8, 1999) explores the factors that led to the negotiations and outlines the impact of history on current aspirations. Describing the development of an environment for peace, it analyses the complex underlying forces and aspects of the agreement that have helped the process or caused problems with implementation.
Updated in print and online in 2003, Accord issue 8 includes a new article by Clem McCartney that highlights weaknesses in the agreement, including the challenge posed by issues such as decommissioning. He analyses the negative effects of an elite bargaining process on the outstanding issues and argues that a new culture of cooperative politics is required to embed the peace process.
The publication also contains full texts of the main peace agreements plus a chronology of the conflict and peace process. A Spanish translation: Haciendo balance: El proceso de paz de Irlanda del Norte is also available for download (pdf 760kb) along with a Russian version (pdf 2.2mb)
Geoffrey Corry, Glencree Centre for Reconciliation, Dublin, Republic of Ireland