Decommissioning in Northern Ireland was a process in the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

as part of the

Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political developm ...

. Under the Belfast Agreement, all paramilitary groups fighting in

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

would

decommission Decommissioning is a general term for a formal process to remove something from an active status, and may refer to: Infrastructure * Decommissioned offshore * Decommissioned highway * Greenfield status of former industrial sites * Nuclear decomm ...

. Decommissioning was a defining issue in the effort to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland.

Belfast Agreement/Good Friday Agreement

The

, or Good Friday Agreement, was signed in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

on 10 April 1998 (

Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Holy ...

) by the British and Irish governments and endorsed by most

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

political parties. It contained provisions for a government involving both

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, whose traditional aspirations, expressed as

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

on one side and

unionism Unionism may refer to: Trades *Community unionism, the ways trade unions work with community organizations *Craft unionism, a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on a particular craft or trade *Dual unionism, the developm ...

on the other, had often clashed over the years. The Agreement recognised the legitimacy of both aspirations. One of the provisions of the Agreement was that the parties agree to collectively use their influence to achieve decommissioning within two years, by May 2000.

Independent International Commission on Decommissioning

The

Independent International Commission on Decommissioning The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) was established to oversee the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in Northern Ireland, as part of the peace process. Legislation and organisation An earlier international b ...

(IICD) was established to oversee the decommissioning. Its objective was to facilitate the decommissioning of firearms, ammunition and explosives.

Decommissioning problems

Into late 2001, the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...

(IRA) was reluctant to disarm. The IRA refused to disarm because they said that the British government had reneged on its side of the bargain, by watering down the reforms of the

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Roya ...

proposed by the Patten Commission, and by failing to pull troops out of Northern Ireland. After the original deadline for decommissioning – May 2000 – passed, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning set 30 June 2001. That date passed as well without full disarmament. The crisis hit its climax in July 2001 as

David Trimble William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He wa ...

, the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

leader, resigned as first minister of the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive in protest against the IRA failure to redeem its pledge to put its weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use" (he was later re-elected). The peace process was on the brink of collapse again after the Provisional IRA failed to convince the UK Government or the Ulster Unionists that they had made "sufficient progress towards decommissioning".

Breakthrough

On 7 August 2001, the IRA agreed on a method of destroying its arsenal.

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of t ...

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...

at the time, described the breakthrough as "significant" and "historic". General John de Chastelain of Canada, chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, said the proposals had been accepted by the panel as ones that would "put IRA arms completely and verifiably beyond use." The Ulster Unionists had said they would no longer take part in the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameral , house1 = , leader1_type = S ...

if the IRA did not begin disarming. The announcement came after meetings between the commission and a representative of the IRA. During the process of decommissioning the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by J ...

demanded that the IRA release photographs of the decommissioning process in order to satisfy the unionist "man in the street". The IRA rejected these claims, claiming it would amount to "humiliation" , and that two clergymen would oversee the process instead. In June 2009, both the

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign ...

and Red Hand Commando announced that they had completed a process of decommissioning. The UDA said it had started a process that would lead to the destruction of all its arms. Originally, both organisations had refused to decommission, claiming that copying the IRA's action would amount to "dancing to their tune".

Timeline

*10 April 1998 (

is signed, which agrees to have all paramilitary groups in

by May 2000. *May 2000: Deadline to disarm passes.

agrees on a new deadline, 30 June 2001. *30 June 2001: Deadline to disarm passes. *July 2001:

Ulster Unionist The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...

leader

resigns as

First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of '' ...

because the

(IRA) refuses to disarm. *7 August 2001: The IRA agrees on a method to decommission.

References