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VOTING FOR PEACE
Will the political peace in Northern Ireland hold? June 4, 1998 |
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[Editor's Note: Due to technical problems, Mr. Gurdon's responses will be posted Friday, June 5.]
Questions asked
in this forum:
Can the new agreement deal with violence in the streets? How is the Assembly election shaping up? How key is voter participation to the viability of the peace agreement? Will this Assembly be able to make the day-to-day decisions? How will outside influences (UK, Ireland, U.S.) affect the Assembly?
NewsHour Backgrounders
May 25, 1998:
Joe Carroll and Hugo Gurdon discusses the Irish peace deal.
April10, 1998:
Former Senator George Mitchell discusses the peace accord.
April 9, 1998:
Online Forum:
Will peace last in Northern Ireland?
April 9, 1998:
Irish peace talks go down to the wire.
March 17, 1998:
P.M. Bertie Ahern discusses efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
August 4, 1997:
Northern Ireland peace talks are scheduled to resume in September.
July 21, 1997:
Ireland: More Steps Toward Peace.
February 12, 1996:
An IRA bomb shatters the 18 month ceasefire.
Online Forum
The Greening of the White House: a look at U.S. - Northern Ireland relations.
Online Forum
Northern Ireland Peace Talks.
Online Forum
Is peace possible in Northern Ireland?
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the Europe.
Outside Links
Irish Times
Daily Telegraph
A negotiated end to the violence that has wracked the six counties of Northern Ireland for 30 years took another step towards reality Friday with the overwhelming endorsement of a political peace deal.
In the predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland, 94 percent of the voters agreed the nation should give up its territorial claim to the North. In mainly Protestant Northern Ireland, 71 percent voted to create a new Northern Ireland Assembly. However, while almost all of the sizable Catholic minority voted for the deal, but the majority Protestants who want to remain part of Britain, known as Unionists, narrowly voted -- 55 percent to 45 percent – to back the deal.
KEY POINTS OF THE PEACE DEAL:
NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY:
Elections in June for a 108-seat assembly at Stormont, former center of a Protestant-dominated parliament abolished in 1972. Checks and balances require Protestants and Catholics to share power and responsibilities.Powers now administered by Britain's Northern Ireland Office will not be handed back to local politicians until early 1999 -- and only if the assembly members agree on how to participate in the North-South Council.
NORTH-SOUTH COUNCIL:
A forum for ministers from the Irish Republic's government to promote joint policy-making with the new Northern Ireland assembly. Areas of potential common interest include agriculture, transportation links, policing and relations with the European Union. Will have powers to implement all-Ireland policies -- but only with the approval of both the Northern Ireland assembly and the Irish parliament in Dublin.
EAST-WEST COUNCIL:
Lawmakers from the Irish Republic will meet regularly with members of the British Parliament from London, the Northern Ireland assembly, and with representatives of the new parliament for Scotland and assembly for Wales. It will have no administrative or legislative powers.
IRISH CONSTITUTION:
Republic of Ireland will hold referendum on amending the country's constitution, which now claims the territory of Northern Ireland.Some observers see the narrow Protestant vote as a potential problem.
"The fact that so many Unionists voted against the agreement [means] … it doesn't take that much of a swing to unsettle things for the Unionists," Hugo Gurdon, Washington Bureau Chief of Britain's major conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph, said on The NewsHour.
Although the implementation of the new Assembly faces several challenges in the next few months, many observers argue, there has been a fundamental shift in Northern Ireland.
"It is a kind of an unimaginable agreement that people from those opposite ends of the spectrum who kind of hate each other in many ways are suddenly prepared now to sit down at the same table," Joe Carroll, Washington bureau chief of the Dublin-based Irish Times.
What does the future hold? Has the Northern Ireland issue shifted from armed conflict to political debate? Will Unionists continue to support the agreement? Should the IRA and other groups decommission their arms?
Joe Carroll and Hugo Gurdon answered your questions regarding the peace agreement and the upcoming elections.
Questions asked in this forum:
Can the new agreement deal with violence in the streets? How is the Assembly election shaping up? How key is voter participation to the viability of the peace agreement? Will this Assembly be able to make the day-to-day decisions? How will outside influences (UK, Ireland, U.S.) affect the Assembly?
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