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Timeline: Ups and downs of Northern Ireland peace process

Reuters Translate This Article
8 February 2010

(Reuters) - The Irish National Liberation Army, one of Northern Ireland's deadliest paramilitary groups, has dumped all its weapons in front of independent witnesses, the commission overseeing the province's disarmament process said on Monday.

Fighting between pro-British and Irish nationalist groups killed 3,600 people before a 1998 peace deal. Here is a timeline since then.

June 1998 — Elections to a new Protestant-Catholic power-sharing assembly. Protestant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble is elected first minister-designate.

August — Car bomb in the town of Omagh, west of Belfast, kills 29 people in the worst single attack of the conflict. The Real Irish Republican Army splinter group claims responsibility.

Dec. 1999 — Northern Ireland gets its own government in which Protestants and Catholics share power after 27 years of direct rule from London.

Feb. 2000 — Britain suspends assembly amid anger by Protestants, who support ties to Britain, over the failure of IRA guerrillas to disarm.

May — IRA says it will put its weapons into storage and allow inspections. Britain restores power to Belfast assembly.

June 2001 — IRA political ally Sinn Fein overtakes its more moderate rival, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), as Northern Ireland's biggest nationalist party in British parliamentary elections.

July — Trimble resigns over IRA's failure to disarm.

Oct. — IRA says it has put some weapons 'beyond use'.

Oct. 2002 — Sinn Fein offices at the Northern Irish assembly are raided by police investigating an alleged IRA spy ring. Britain suspends the assembly and resumes direct rule.

Nov. 2003 — Election takes place with Ian Paisley's hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)—which opposed the Good Friday Agreement due to Sinn Fein's involvement—overtaking the UUP as the province's biggest pro-British party.

April 2005 — Sinn Fein calls on the IRA to end its armed campaign after a series of crimes are linked to the group.

July — The IRA says it ordered its guerrillas to dump all arms and pursue their goal of a united Ireland through purely peaceful means.

Oct. 2006 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern launch talks with Northern Ireland's parties and suggest a plan for reviving self rule.

Jan. 2007 — Sinn Fein's mostly Catholic membership votes overwhelmingly to back the Protestant-dominated Police Service of Northern Ireland after decades of opposition and mistrust, fulfilling a key condition for the revival of the assembly.

March — Both the DUP and Sinn Fein increase their shares of the vote in new assembly elections.

— DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams hold their first face-to-face meeting.

May 8 — A new power-sharing assembly government is launched with Paisley as first minister and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness as his deputy.

June 5, 2008 — Peter Robinson takes over as first minister, succeeding Ian Paisley who retired as DUP leader on May 31.

Sept. 3 — The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) says the IRA's ruling Army Council is no longer operational and the guerrilla group does not pose a threat to peace.

March 7, 2009 — Gunmen kill two British soldiers and wound four others at the Massereene base near Antrim. The Real IRA later claim responsibility. Two days later a policeman is shot dead in Craigavon, the first policeman killed since 1998. The Continuity IRA later claim responsibility for the killing.

June 27 — The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) says it has completed the decommissioning of its weapons and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) says it has also started the process. Both are pro-British paramilitary forces.

Oct 10 — The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) says it will end its violent activities.

Oct 12 — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses Stormont and holds talks with leaders in Belfast.

Oct 21 — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he has agreed funding for the devolution of policing and justice in Northern Ireland.

Jan. 8, 2010 — Republican militants seriously injure a police officer when they explode a bomb under his car.

Jan. 25 — Gordon Brown and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen fly to Belfast for talks to try to overcome a dispute over the transfer of police and justice powers from London to Belfast.

Feb. 4 — An agreement that will give Belfast its first justice minister by April 12 is reached after days of talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein. The text of the 'Agreement at Hillsborough Castle' also says both sides are committed to establishing an improved framework' for regulating parades.

Feb. 5 — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Irish counterpart Brian Cowen endorse the accord.

Feb. 8 — INLA dumps all its weapons.

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