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The Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement

Three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland and the 1998 peace agreement that largely ended them.

From the late 1960s until the 1990s Northern Ireland suffered a period of inter-communal violence known as "The Troubles". On one side were nationalists, mostly Catholic, who wanted Northern Ireland to leave the UK and unite with the Republic of Ireland. On the other were unionists, mostly Protestant, who wanted to remain in the UK. Paramilitary groups on both sides — most notoriously the Provisional IRA — carried out bombings and shootings; British troops were deployed from 1969.

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The Belfast or Good Friday Agreement of 10 April 1998 largely ended the violence. It established a power-sharing devolved government at Stormont, formal cooperation with the Republic of Ireland, and the principle that Northern Ireland's constitutional status would be decided by its people.

You may be asked the year of the Good Friday Agreement (1998), or what it set up (a power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly).

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