In a presentation given at a panel discussion at Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement on 10th April 2018, former president Bill Clinton claimed that ‘The Good Friday Agreement is a work of genius that’s applicable if you care at all about preserving democracy.’ According to Clinton, the agreement ‘called for real democracy – majority rule; minority rights; individual rights; the rule of law; the end of violence; shared political decision-making; shared economic benefits’. However, ‘The most interesting thing was that by creating a space for the identity and the interests and the values of all the people involved … it was a work of surpassing genius’. And former US senator George Mitchell, who chaired the 1998 talks, stated that today we pay little ‘attention or tribute to those political leaders who do dare greatly and succeed’.
Like Guyana, Northern Ireland is one of those bicommunal societies (places in which two large groups control over 70% of the population) that is frequently plagued by socio/political tension. The Good Friday Agreement brought an end to the 30 year ‘troubles’ between the Protestants (unionists/loyalists who want continued and ever closer relations with Britain) and the Catholics (nationalists/republicans wanting a united Ireland) that began in the 1960s and ended with the loss of 3,600 lives. As president, Clinton was instrumental in the agreement being reached and thus could be excused some exaggeration. After all, a shared governance arrangement such as that which brought the warring sides together, had, since the mid 1960s, been thought to be essential if ethnically deeply divided societies are to progress.
The Good Friday Agreement was made possible by the parties agreeing to fudge the main issue surrounding Irish nationalism. Citizens were given the right to identify themselves as both British and Irish and a united Ireland was to materialise only when the majority of citizens voted for it. An electoral system based upon proportional representation and open borders facilitated by both the United Kingdom and Ireland being in the European Union played positively to the national aspirations of both sides. Another interesting feature requires that upon taking their seats, members of the national assembly must declare themselves ‘unionist’, ‘nationalist’ or ‘others’ and cannot change that declaration more than once during a parliamentary year. Upon the presentation of a ‘Petition of Concern’ by a third of the members of the assembly, a cross-community vote (which means that separate majorities of unionists and nationalists must support the issue for it to be passed) can be put to the assembly by the speaker. The Northern Ireland Executive is co-chaired by a first minister and deputy first minister, who come from the two largest parties respectively and therefore cannot function if either party withdraws. Ministerial positions are allocated to other parties with significant representation in the national assembly.
