The Good Friday Agreement at 25 - Where do tomorrow's leaders think we go from here?
Claire Dickson
The Good Friday Agreement established power-sharing in Northern Ireland in the wake of prolonged conflict, arguably bringing about a cross-community consensus for the foundations on which peace would rest. The Agreement acknowledged that Northern Ireland is part of the UK whilst the principle of consent element of the Agreement means that a United Ireland is able to take place if a majority of people in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland want it to. Both sides of the community were taken into account by a mechanism which allows for the Assembly to be elected every five years, but only so long as parties on both sides of the divide participate. A stop-start nature of the Assembly and Executive has ensued and 25 years since the Agreement was signed, these institutions aren’t functioning. What follows are the thoughts of young leaders involved in Northern Ireland’s party political scene who reflect on how Northern Ireland is to maintain its core institutions without losing the sentiment of an agreement so fundamental to its past and its future.
Amy Thomas is the Queen’s University Belfast chair of Alliance Youth and believes voluntary coalition is Northern Ireland’s route out of its current political disfunction.
Although she firmly contends that “the Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland 25 years ago and gave us the institutions we have today,” it is in her view mandatory coalition which is currently failing the people of Northern Ireland. She details the weaknesses of mandatory coalition in commenting that it allows the largest nationalist and unionist parties to side-line those who designate as ‘other,’ an issue which is particular topical in the wake of a recent increase in the number of Alliance MLAs. For Thomas, the Good Friday Agreement in its current form creates a system which does not represent an ever-changing demographic within Northern Ireland by placing the constitutional question at the heart of decision-making. It is in using a system which promotes co-operation as opposed to division that Thomas sees a brighter future for Northern Ireland.
Grant Warren is the former chair of the Democratic Unionist Association at Queen’s University Belfast and sees the Northern Ireland Protocol as the biggest threat to the constitutional framework laid down by the Agreement, a framework unionists should be holding fast to.
“As a unionist, the most important aspect of the Agreement is the principle of consent, ensuring that Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom is secure until a majority of people here vote otherwise,” he comments. The only way he sees Northern Ireland living up to the Agreement’s bigger picture promise of a Northern Ireland at ease with itself is through an agreement reached by the UK government and EU on the Protocol. This would have to restore the basis upon which each community signed up to the Agreement as it currently makes Northern Ireland subject to a different set of customs arrangements than England, Scotland and Wales, in his view eroding the principle of consent.
James Murphy is chair of Ogra Shinn Fein at Queen’s University Belfast and sees the DUP’s “obsession with the protocol” as the issue which needs to be resolved.
As someone born after the Agreement, he believes his generation have been able to reap the benefits and opportunities stemming from it and it is a huge shame to see the institutions in the state they are in at present. The way out of the current political situation in Murphy’s eyes is to elect a speaker and get the assembly back up and running before further damage is caused.
The final young leader I spoke to was Will Polland, chair of Social Democratic and Labour Youth at Queen’s University Belfast. He finds the attitude of disillusionment with the Agreement due to its institutions not currently working incorrect in light of the values and opportunities laid out in it. “To me the most important thing about the GFA is the values which it aimed to instil in our politics 25 years ago. Values that take sectarian views and divisions out of our politics and instead foster an atmosphere of cooperation and respect for all.”
It remains to be seen whether the Good Friday Agreement can be revived in a way which takes account of the narrative each party brings to the table. Perhaps the age-old question of compromise amidst chaos remains as much a part of the Agreement’s future as it did in ‘98.
Claire Dickson is Deputy Head of The Scoop and a Politics student at Queen’s University Belfast