Good Friday Agreement

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is trumpeted as a resounding success to this day. Its twentieth anniversary was marked with great fanfare by the likes of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, but the majority of the population of North ignored the celebrations and struggled on with their daily lives. The reason for this disinterest is clear: ordinary working people are thankful that the carnage which marked the three decades before 1998 has come to an end, but they are only too aware that genuine peace remains elusive, as low-level sectarian conflict and paramilitarism continue to blight their lives. They have also given up on the long-promised but never delivered “peace dividend” - the myth that an influx of investment and good jobs would cement the peace.