Ireland–United Kingdom Relations - Good Friday Agreement

Good Friday Agreement

The conflict in Northern Ireland, as well as dividing both Governments, paradoxically also led to increasingly closer co-operation and improved relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom. A 1981 meeting between the two governments established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Council. This was further developed in 1985 under the Anglo-Irish Agreement whereby the two governments created the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, under the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Council, as a regular forum for the two Governments to reach agreement on, "(i) political matters; (ii) security and related matters; (iii) legal matters, including the administration of justice; (iv) the promotion of cross-border co-operation." The Conference was "mainly concerned with Northern Ireland; but some of the matters under consideration will involve cooperative action in both parts of the island of Ireland, and possibly also in Great Britain." The Agreement also recommended the establishment of the Anglo-Irish Interparliamentary Body, a body where parliamentarians from the Houses of the Oireachtas (Ireland) and Houses of Parliament (United Kingdom) would regularly meet to share views and ideas. This was created in 1990 as the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body.

The Northern Ireland peace process culminated in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 that further developed the institutions established under these Anglo-Irish Agreement. New institutions were established interlocking across "strands":

• Strand I: an Assembly and Executive for Northern Ireland based on the D'Hondt system;
• Strand II: a North-South Ministerial Council to develop co-operation and common policies within the island of Ireland;
• Strand III:
  1. a British-Irish Council "to promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of these islands"
  2. a new British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference, established under the British-Irish Agreement, replaced the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Council and the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.

The scope of the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference is broader that the original Conference, and is intended to "bring together the British and Irish Governments to promote bilateral co-operation at all levels on all matters of mutual interest within the competence of both Governments." The Conference also provides a joint institution for the government of Northern Ireland on non-devolved matters (or all matters when the Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended). However, the United Kingdom retains ultimate sovereignty over Northern Ireland. Representatives from Northern Ireland participate in the Conference when matters relating to Northern Ireland are concerned.

The members of the British-Irish Council (sometimes called the Council of the Isles) are representatives of the British and Irish Governments, the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, together with representatives of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. It meets regularly to discuss matters of mutual interest divided into work areas (such as energy, environment or housing) allocated to individual members to work and report on.

The Anglo-Irish Interparliamentary Body developed independently over the same period, eventually becoming known as the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly and including members from the devolved administrations of the UK and the Crown Dependencies.

The development of these institutions was supported by acts such the visit of efforts by Mary Robinson (as President of Ireland) to the Queen Elizabeth II (Queen of the United Kingdom), an apology by Tony Blair (as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) to Irish people for the failures of the British Government during the Great Famine of 1845—1852 and the creation of the Island of Ireland Peace Park. A visit state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to the Ireland in May 2011 — including the laying of a wreath at a memorial to IRA fighters in the Anglo-Irish war — symbolically sealed the change in relationships between the two states following the transfer of police and justice powers to Northern Ireland. The visit came a century after her grandfather, King George V, was the last monarch of the United Kingdom to pay a state visit to Ireland in July 1911, while it was was still part of the United Kingdom.