Hillsborough Castle and the Good Friday Agreement

Resolving 'the Troubles'

The conflict known as ‘the Troubles’ claimed more than 3,500 lives and saw as many as 50,000 people injured over the course of nearly three decades. The Troubles erupted in the late 1960s, but they had their roots in centuries of fraught history between the people of Britain and Ireland, which led to the partition of the island of Ireland in 1921. 

In the south, the Irish Free State (later known as the Republic of Ireland) governed itself as an independent state. In the north-east, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. The majority of Northern Ireland’s population, mainly Protestants, identified as pro-British unionists. The minority, generally Catholics, were Irish nationalists who wanted to join the Republic in a united Ireland. 

The nationalists highlighted grievances about their treatment by Northern Ireland’s unionist-dominated government when it came to housing, employment and other civil rights. In the 1960s, these tensions led first to protests, then to violence. British troops were deployed on the streets, the Government of Northern Ireland was suspended, and direct rule from London was introduced by the British government. But the killing went on. 

Over the next three decades, several attempts to broker peace failed. However, by the 1990s the ceasefires called by the main paramilitary groups – the republican Provisional IRA and the loyalist UDA and UVF – provided an opportunity for progress. In 1998, this culminated in talks involving the leaders of the main unionist and nationalist political parties, representatives of the armed groups, and the British and Irish governments. The talks were given significant support by the United States government under the leadership of President Bill Clinton, who appointed Senator George Mitchell to chair the talks as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

Tony Blair and 'The Hand of History'

Forty-eight hours before the deadline set by Senator Mitchell, the negotiations appeared to be on the verge of collapse. Unionists insisted they would not touch a suggested draft deal with ‘a forty-foot barge pole’. Senator Mitchell urged UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to fly to Belfast to mount a rescue mission.
 
On 7 April, Tony Blair landed by helicopter at Hillsborough Castle, holding meetings with key players, including Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who was under considerable pressure from sceptics within his party. Blair called a news conference in Hillsborough Castle's State Entrance Hall. 

Before speaking to the media, Blair told his aides that, because the stakes were so high, he would avoid any elaborate rhetoric. ‘Now is not the time for soundbites,’ he began, true to his word. He then followed it with, ‘but I feel the hand of history upon our shoulder. I really do’. The aides rolled their eyes, knowing the Prime Minister’s memorable soundbite would feature on TV reports around the world.

The Agreement

Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern made changes to their draft, which calmed unionist nerves. Northern Ireland’s parties then overcame ‘the burden of history’, indicating their support for an amended document. On the afternoon of 10 April, Senator Mitchell finally drew the negotiations to a close, and the Good Friday Agreement was announced to the waiting media at Stormont.

The Agreement was both a political deal and a peace deal. It set up a new form of self-government for Northern Ireland at Stormont and contained measures designed to strengthen the peace ushered in by the IRA and loyalist paramilitary ceasefires of the mid-1990s. 

The political deal 

The Agreement contained a blueprint for a new devolved power-sharing government at Stormont, which would take responsibility for running Northern Ireland. Power would be shared between unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK, and nationalists, who would like it to join the Republic of Ireland as a single independent nation. 

There would be no immediate change in the status of Northern Ireland, which would stay in the United Kingdom. However, a provision was included for a referendum or ‘border poll’ to be called if, in the future, it seems likely most people in Northern Ireland want to leave the UK and form a united Ireland. All sides agreed that the future should be decided by the democratic wishes of the majority in Northern Ireland, rather than being imposed by force. 

Both governments said that whoever was in charge, nationalists and unionists should enjoy ‘parity of esteem’, with equal rights and respect for their different identities and aspirations. When it came to citizenship, the agreement stated that anyone born in Northern Ireland should be free to identify as Irish, British or as joint nationals. 

The peace deal 

The Agreement included proposals for ‘decommissioning’: the destruction of the weapons held by the IRA and the loyalist paramilitary groups.

In return, the British government promised ‘demilitarisation’: the dismantling of security checkpoints and the withdrawal of soldiers from the streets. Prisoners linked to those paramilitary groups who backed the deal were to be released early from jail.

The Referendum

The parties may have decided that the Agreement was the best compromise possible, but would the people agree? The deal was put to a vote in joint referendums held on both sides of the Irish border in May 1998. 

The release of paramilitary prisoners, many of whom had been convicted of multiple murders, proved an especially emotive issue for ‘Vote No’ campaigners. However, the ‘Yes’ campaign got a last-minute boost from a high-profile, pro-Agreement pop concert, where the rock singer Bono of U2 held the hands of the unionist and nationalist leaders, David Trimble and John Hume, in a symbolic show of solidarity. 

More than 71% of voters in Northern Ireland backed the deal. Support was even higher in the Republic of Ireland, where more than 94% voted ‘Yes’ to the Good Friday Agreement.  

Implementing the deal

Although the voters had given the Agreement their backing, implementing it proved far from straightforward. Violence continued, most horrifically at Omagh, where 29 people were killed in a dissident Irish republican bombing in August 1998. The victims included a mother pregnant with twins. Unionists refused to join the proposed power-sharing government until the IRA had begun to disarm. 

The Hillsborough Declaration

A year on from the Agreement, in March 1999, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern summoned Northern Ireland’s politicians to Hillsborough Castle for talks aimed at resolving the ‘guns and government’ stalemate. 

In her memoir, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam, recalled: ‘The Hillsborough staff could barely cope. We had to set up a makeshift bar and provide regular hot meals for all. Sinn Fein held many of their meetings walking in the grounds, believing their rooms to be bugged. Each night we were besieged by anti-Agreement protestors massed outside the gates waving union jacks and hurling abuse at anyone they saw. The SDLP [Social Democratic and Labour Party] had to move rooms because their initial base was too near the front and their conversations were drowned out by the yelling and screaming whenever one of them was visible at the window.’
 
After the marathon discussions, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern issued a ‘Hillsborough Declaration’ urging all sides to engage in so-called ‘Acts of Reconciliation’. But the Declaration failed to break the ‘guns and government’ logjam.  

‘Heavy ordinance’

The issue of paramilitary disarmament continued to prove an obstacle for years after the Good Friday Agreement. 

In October 2003, reporters packed into the Throne Room at Hillsborough Castle to hear the Canadian General John de Chastelain provide details of an IRA act of disarmament he had witnessed. The statement was meant to bolster confidence amongst sceptics. But the General was exhausted after many hours without sleep watching the destruction of the weapons and was sworn to secrecy on revealing the precise details. De Chastelain confirmed that his team had witnessed the destruction of ‘light, medium and heavy ordinance’ but could not provide any practical illustration of what that meant. 

The live TV news conference did not provide David Trimble’s pro-Agreement Ulster Unionists with the reassurance they needed. The next month they were beaten in an election by Ian Paisley’s anti-Agreement DUP (Democratic Unionist Party).

Ian Paisley at Hillsborough

Ian Paisley opposed the Good Friday Agreement and had a long track record of protesting outside the Hillsborough Castle gates. But after the IRA completed its disarmament in 2005, the British government urged the DUP leader to consider sharing power with nationalists. 

The Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain used Hillsborough Castle as a venue for his attempts to persuade the firebrand DUP politician to compromise. He hosted the Paisley family for an official dinner to mark the leader’s 80th birthday. 

After Ian Paisley became First Minister of Northern Ireland in 2007, sharing power with the nationalist Sinn Féin party, Peter Hain hosted other social events which would have been unthinkable during the Troubles. These included a private farewell dinner for the DUP leader at Hillsborough Castle, at which Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams sat side by side with members of the Paisley family, as a guest.

Devolving justice

Apart from disarmament, there were many other hold-ups in the peace process. One issue concerned the point at which Northern Ireland’s politicians should take over responsibility for the sensitive area of justice and policing. 

In February 2010, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen unveiled the ‘Hillsborough Castle Agreement’. Hailed as a final piece in the jigsaw of implementing the Good Friday Agreement, the deal came after hundreds of hours of discussions in rooms throughout the castle. It is believed to have been the longest continuous round of talks during the entire peace process. 

What made the experience particularly arduous for reporters and camera crews waiting outside was that the talks coincided with a period of freezing winter weather. Many TV broadcasts took place outside the icy gates in near-blizzard conditions.

Tight security at Hillsborough

During the Troubles, senior government ministers and visiting royals were potential terrorist targets, so security at Hillsborough Castle had to be tight. In 1977, a helipad was installed at the castle to minimise any potentially hazardous road journeys, after the IRA had threatened a ‘bombing blitz’ to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee tour. As late as June 2000, Irish republican dissidents were blamed for leaving a partially exploded bomb in a bag just outside the castle security perimeter. 

Royalty and republicans at the castle

Despite some continuing challenges, the Good Friday Agreement radically altered the political and security landscape in Northern Ireland. Hillsborough Castle provided the backdrop for some notable encounters symbolic of a better, more peaceful era. 
 
In June 2014, Queen Elizabeth II used the castle for separate private meetings with Northern Ireland’s First Minister, the DUP’s Peter Robinson, and the Deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness. Afterwards, Martin McGuinness, who had been a senior figure in the Provisional IRA, said, ‘reconciliation requires bold gestures’. 

After Queen Elizabeth’s death, King Charles III visited the castle where he met leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main parties. A message of condolence was delivered to King Charles and Queen Camilla by the veteran Irish republican activist Alex Maskey, in his capacity as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. During the Troubles, Mr Maskey acknowledged, it would never have been contemplated that someone like him could deliver such a message.

The Sinn Féin politician paid tribute to Elizabeth II’s work for peace. He described her as ‘not a distant observer’, but someone who had ‘personally demonstrated how individual acts of positive leadership can help break down barriers and encourage reconciliation’.