Abstract
In the referendum of 22 May 1998 the people of Ireland, North and South, agreed on how they should live together on the island of Ireland in partnership with the peoples of the British Isles. Eighteen months earlier no one would have considered the signing of the historic Belfast Agreement a serious possibility with Sinn Féin/IRA at war and the Unionists vowing never to accept the proposals put on the table by the British and Irish governments. But the negotiations were, in the end, successful. Numerous political and social factors contributed to this outcome: for example, the persistence of the two governments, the determination of the main paramilitary groups to bring an end to the war, the election of ‘New Labour’ in May 1997 and their overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, the involvement of the American president and the skill of the talks chairman, Senator George Mitchell.1
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Notes and References
For a review of this period of the Northern Ireland peace process see M. Cox, A. Guelke and F. Stephen (eds), A Farewell to Arms? From ‘long war’ to long peace in Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2000).
This is a revised version of two papers that reviewed the role of the polls in the Northern Ireland peace process. I am grateful for the many useful suggestions of both the editor and referees of Security Dialogue. C. J. Irwin, ‘The People’s Peace Process: Northern Ireland and the Role of Public Opinion Polls in Political Negotiations’, Security Dialogue, Vol. 30, No. 3, September (1999), pp. 105–17. C. J. Irwin, ‘Public Opinion During the Peace Process’, Northern Ireland: Paths to Peace, Conference in University College Cork, 20th and 21st October 2000.
In addition to M. Cox, A. Guelke and F. Stephen (eds), A Farewell to Arms? From ‘long war’ to long peace in Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2000), see,
J. Bowyer Bell, The Irish Troubles: a Generation of Violence 1967–1992 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1993) for a comprehensive history of this period in the Northern Ireland conflict.
For a review of this period of the Northern Ireland peace process see, M. Cox, A. Guelke and F. Stephen (eds), A Farewell to Arms? From ‘long war’ to long peace in Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2000).
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© 2002 Colin Irwin
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Irwin, C. (2002). Introduction. In: The People’s Peace Process in Northern Ireland. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403914323_1
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