beyond

Beyond : Decommisioning

1998-2020

" ... this agreement has given us 20 years of relative peace."
~ Brian Gormally at the congressional hearing for The Good Friday Agreement At Twenty Years: Achievements And Unfinished Business (U.S. Governement Publishing Office).

One impact of the Belfast Agreement is that paramilitary groups have been fully decommissioned and the British troops have been removed. 

"... the IRA wants a permanent peace, that the declaration and maintenance of the cessation, which is now entering its fifth year, is evidence of that, that the IRA's guns are silent and that there is no threat to the peace process from the IRA."
~ Statement on Decommissioning issued by the IRA, Tuesday 1 February 2000 (CAIN)

IRA warehouse before decommissioning (BBC).

National Public Radio on September 26, 2005

It took some paramilitary groups, including the IRA, years more to come to an agreement of the way to proceed with decommissioning. The Irish government, the British government, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) and the paramilitary group all had to agree to how to destroy arms that had been funded to revolt against the governments. ​​​​​​​

"I grew up within the military family. It was completely normal to check under the family car for a bomb every morning before you went to school, like it was just normal, normal military life," said Lisa Partridge. "Nobody would want to go back to that life." (AP News)

Gates that still close each night between Catholic and Protestant communities. December 20, 2019 (AP News)

"Twenty years later we still have problems. Coming to terms with the past has not been easy. Providing justice for the victims has not been easy. And now we have Brexit, which changes the open borders between Ireland and the U.K., which very much complicates the implementation of the peace agreements."
~ Senator Benjamin L. Cardin at the congressional hearing for The Good Friday Agreement At Twenty Years: Achievements And Unfinished Business (U.S. Governement Publishing Office).

In conclusion, the Belfast Agreement has done a lot to help the community relations, violence, imbalance, political nature and trust issues in Northern Ireland, but with Brexit transforming the border back to a hard border the future is uncertain for peace.