Today, Northern Ireland is quietly celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement that ended three decades of violence, and is preparing to host US President Joe Biden for the occasion.

On 10 April 1998, the Good Friday before Easter, pro-Reunification Democrats and unionists in favor of keeping Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom reached an unlikely peace agreement after intense negotiations involving London, Dublin and Washington .

The agreement ended three decades of violence that claimed the lives of 3,500 people between the mostly Protestant Unionists and the mostly Catholic Republicans, with the participation of the British Army.

A quarter of a century later, the political stalemate and prevailing security fears are beyond celebration.

There are no major events planned for today, but many political figures are expected during the week, in the forefront of which US President Joe Biden, who has Irish roots, will arrive in Belfast tomorrow evening, Tuesday, where he will be met at the airport. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the people of Northern Ireland,” Rishi Sunak, who was only 17 when the agreement was signed, said in a statement.

Political impasse

Sunak said the anniversary is an opportunity to “commemorate those who have made difficult decisions, made compromises and demonstrated leadership.”

In the years following the peace agreement, paramilitary groups were disarmed, military checkpoints were dismantled and British troops were withdrawn. But the anniversary is celebrated without enthusiasm as peace in Northern Ireland looks more fragile today than it has rarely been since 1998.

The local institutions created by the deal to bring communities together have been paralyzed for more than a year by disputes over the consequences of leaving the European Union.

Deeply committed to keeping the province within the UK, the DUP is refusing to join government until post-Brexit regulations (customs controls, application of certain European rules…) aim to prevent the return of the physical border with Ireland.

A revision of the protocol between the EU and the UK, which was supposed to solve the problems of trade unions, has been rejected by the DUP in recent weeks.

In this already difficult context, as the anniversary approaches, Northern Ireland has raised its terrorist threat level following an attempted assassination of a police officer in February, for which members of a dissident pro-democracy group claimed responsibility.

For the arrival of Joe Biden in the province, it is expected to mobilize more than 300 agents who will arrive there from the rest of the United Kingdom.

“International Support”

While “the past 25 years have had their ups and downs,” acknowledged Gerry Adams, former Democratic leader of Sinn Féin, “one thing is certain: we’re all in a better place today.”

The Good Friday Agreement, “as we will see during President Biden’s visit this week, continues to enjoy significant international support from our closest allies,” Sunak also recalled.

The prime minister is to host a “formal dinner” for the occasion and attend a celebratory conference at Queen’s University Belfast. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose husband Bill Clinton played a key role in the peace deal when he was US President, is also set to attend the three-day conference.

For his part, Joe Biden wants to use his visit to “mark the significant progress made since the signing of the agreement” and to remind “the will of the United States to support the great economic potential of Northern Ireland.” , according to the White House.

Then the American president will travel to the Irish Republic, to the capital Dublin, as well as to the counties of Louth (east) and Mayo (west), from where his ancestors came, who emigrated in the middle of the 19th century, fleeing, like so many others from starving Ireland, so that in the end eventually settled in Pennsylvania.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.