North & Politics
Ceasefires, talks, riots and the long road to the 1998 agreement, as the paper reported it.
Mitchell to receive 1998 Liberty Medal
Weeks after the Good Friday Agreement, Philadelphia named its chairman, former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell, for its Fourth of July honour.
Irish peace initiative overwhelmingly supported in both north and south
On 22 May 1998 voters on both sides of the border endorsed the Good Friday Agreement. Patrick S. McCormick reported the result and the fights still ahead.
Gerry Adams: Perdurable peacemaker
Written in West Belfast in 1996 and reprinted after the Good Friday Agreement, a sympathetic American portrait of the Sinn Féin president on the eve of all-party talks.
Peace on the horizon? 'Best hope' for Northern Ireland debated
Written weeks before the May 1998 referendums, this guide set out what the Good Friday Agreement promised and what Belfast people expected of it.
Reflections on seeking peace
Three weeks before Good Friday 1998, a columnist watches Clinton fail to get Trimble and Adams to shake hands, then turns to a death in his own family.
Martin Dillon: Intimate of terrorists
Weeks before the Good Friday Agreement, the Belfast author of The Shankill Butchers and God and the Gun talked to us about killers, clergy and the coming deal.
MacBride passes in House: expected to pass in Senate
March 1998: the House votes the MacBride fair-employment principles into a foreign affairs bill, and Father Sean McManus wonders whether President Clinton will sign.
An observation on Northern Ireland: What the troubles have brought
A 1996 Belfast interview with Sinn Féin councillor Bobby Lavery, whose brother and son were shot dead by loyalists, published days before the Good Friday Agreement.
NI minister asks 200,000 emigrants to 'Make it back home'
In the autumn of the 1994 ceasefire, a Northern Ireland minister invited the emigrants of the Troubles to come home. Our editorial asked what guarantee they would get.
Deadlock continues: British, Sinn Fein fail to settle talks impasse
Four hours at Stormont on November 3, 1995, ended with Sinn Féin and minister Michael Ancram still split over IRA weapons and a date for all-party talks.
Clinton, Adams point of Devlin's sharp wit: Bernadette slams Sinn Fein, demands President Bill Clinton pardon Irish prisoners in the United States and calls for massive protest
At a New Jersey college in October 1995, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey accused Sinn Féin of secret dealing and told Clinton to pardon Irish prisoners before visiting Ireland.
Bruton criticized for talks refusal
In October 1995 Taoiseach John Bruton refused to meet John Hume and Gerry Adams together, and Bertie Ahern called it an insult to nationalists.
Money headed to Ireland, NI in support of peace process
In the ceasefire year the Boston-based American Ireland Fund steered its grants north, from an $800 parents' centre to youth work in West Belfast.
McGuinness: British rule failed in Northern Ireland; Government must set date for peace talks
On a five-day American tour in September 1995, Sinn Féin's chief negotiator told a Philadelphia audience that decommissioning was a British obstacle to all-party talks.
Great Famine mural reflects Ireland's troubles: NI youths make statement during cultural festival
In August 1995 young people in North Belfast's New Lodge painted the Great Hunger on a gable wall and tied it to the poverty outside their doors.
Sinn Fein leader accuses British of missing opportunity for peace: IRA arms issue stumbling block
Eleven months into the IRA ceasefire, a young Tyrone republican told a Pennsylvania AOH hall that London was stalling over guns, prisoners and talks.
Peace brings dividend; NI receives EU funds
A year into the IRA ceasefire, Brussels approved $350 million for Northern Ireland and the border counties: the first of the EU’s PEACE programmes.
Prisoner release sparks riots in NI: Frustration spilled into the streets; Worst violence since cease-fire
The early release of Private Lee Clegg, jailed for killing a Belfast teenager, brought the worst rioting since the 1994 IRA ceasefire in July 1995.
Northern Ireland can never return to its past
A July 1995 Celtic Mirror editorial weighed claims that the IRA was ready to go back to war, counted the dividends of peace, and bet on the ceasefire.