Category Archives: Northern Ireland

Good Friday Agreement remembered

A Personal Memory by Jimmy Burns   The author, who covered Northern Ireland during the 1990’s as a journalist  with the FT ,  remembers the key final stages of the peace process that led to the historic deal.   With the approach of the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday agreement, and what promises to be a make or break in terms of the latest attempt to settle stormy waters in the province with a planned visit by President Biden later this month (April), personal memories flood back of  …

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To bomb or not to bomb, asks the IRA.

Published: 25 June 1997 Sinn Fein may lose last excuse not to condemn violence. The word in west Belfast’s republican strongholds is that several “volunteers” have not been seen for days. Although some IRA activists continue to plot guerrilla tactics as they always have, an equal number – if not more – are engaged in one of the most critical internal debates in the republican movement since the run-up to the August 1994 ceasefire. At issue is whether the movement abandons once and for all its twin-track strategy of the …

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