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Independent Commissions and Contentious Issues in Post-Good Friday Agreement Northern Ireland pp 87–117Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Independent Monitoring Commission

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Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies ((RCS))

Abstract

After the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 questions continued as to whether paramilitary ceasefires were genuine. In 2003 the two governments agreed to form an independent body to monitor the activities of paramilitaries and the demilitarisation of Northern Ireland; the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC). This chapter argues that the commission provided substantial recommendations and highlighted progress even where difficulties remained, and that the diverse backgrounds of the members were important to its work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The IMC’s second report dealt with security normalisation as discussed above.

  2. 2.

    On the 28th of July 2005, the IRA issued a statement indicating that it was ending its armed campaign effective from 4 pm on that day, that members had been ordered to dump arms and commit to exclusively democratic activities and that its representative would engage with the IICD.

  3. 3.

    McCord became involved in the issue of victims’ rights after his son Raymond McCord Jnr was killed by the loyalist paramilitary group, Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), in 1997.

  4. 4.

    The equivalent of £26.5 million was stolen in a bank robbery involving a gang kidnapping bank staffs’ family members to force them to participate in the robbery. This was the largest bank robbery in the history of the British state.

  5. 5.

    A specified organisation is one which the British government considered to still be involved in or encouraging terrorism related to Northern Ireland and not to be on a complete and unequivocal ceasefire.

  6. 6.

    Óglaigh na hÉireann is a name that has been claimed by a number of the factions of Irish republican movement from 1916 onwards. It is also used by the Irish military, who have increasingly used it in recent years. Here it refers to a small dissident republican paramilitary group. It was formed in 2006 as a splinter group from the Continuity IRA. It should not be confused with the Real IRA faction of the same name that began using the same title in 2009.

  7. 7.

    Quinn was lured to a farm in Co. Monaghan and beaten to death by a waiting group of men in October 2007. His family believed that members of the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade were responsible.

  8. 8.

    There were occasional errors in the media where Alderdice was reported as chair. In general, however, unlike some other commissions, it was not dominated by a single member.

  9. 9.

    A search for Joe Brosnan on Nexus UK for the two years previous to his appointment found only 22 articles mentioning him. In comparison, the same search for John Grieve found over 1,000 articles.

  10. 10.

    The high status of existing commissions, particularly the ICP and the IICD may have also increased the IMC status by making commissions generally more credible. These connections are explored in Chapter two.

  11. 11.

    The IMC visit the USA, UK, Ireland and other states on research trips.

  12. 12.

    No such complaint was made so Article 6 of the commission’s TOR was never engaged.

  13. 13.

    Rafferty was murdered in Dublin in April 2005.

  14. 14.

    The TOR of the IMC had an indirect effect on mediation type in so far as Article 10 put forward the states from which the members should come and did not specify a chairperson. The full effects of these elements are outlined in the section dealing with mediator identity.

  15. 15.

    It stated: ‘the objective of the Commission is to carry out [its functions] with a view to promoting the transition to a peaceful society and stable and inclusive devolved Government in Northern Ireland’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Dawn Walsh

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Walsh, D. (2017). Independent Monitoring Commission. In: Independent Commissions and Contentious Issues in Post-Good Friday Agreement Northern Ireland. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50772-9_4

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