After over 30 years of sectarian violence and political disagreements and stalemates, the Good Friday Agreement, facilitated by the U.S. senator George Mitchell, was signed on the 10th April 1998 by Prime Minister Tony Blair (UK Government), Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, (Irish Government) and representatives from the eight main political parties in Northern Ireland.
The agreement was approved by voters across the island of Ireland in two referendums held on 22 May 1998. In Northern Ireland, voters were asked in the 1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum whether they supported the multi-party agreement. In the Republic of Ireland, voters were asked whether they would allow the state to sign the agreement and allow necessary constitutional changes (Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland) to facilitate it. The people of both jurisdictions needed to approve the agreement in order to give effect to it.
The British–Irish Agreement came into force on 2 December 1999, and is the basis of the devolved, power-sharing government in at Stormont, Northern Ireland to this day.
Peace.
The Troubles 