Good Friday Agreement

the agreement between the British and Irish governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland reached on 10 April 1998 in Belfast following lengthy talks. The purpose of the agreement is to deal with relations between the two communities in Northern Ireland; relations between the two parts of Ireland; and between Ireland north and south and the other parts of the British Isles. All parties undertook to renounce violence and to use their influence to ensure that weapons were decommissioned. A 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly was to be created, as well as a North-South Council to discuss matters of mutual interest to Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and a British-Irish Council that would be a forum for all the jurisdictions in the British Isles. The Irish government undertook to remove the clauses in its Constitution that claimed jurisdiction over Northern Ireland, and all parties agreed that the constitutional status of Northern Ireland could be changed only by the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland. It replaced the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.