Reuters AlertNet Lite - CHRONOLOGY-Highs and lows of Northern Ireland peace process

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CHRONOLOGY-Highs and lows of Northern Ireland peace process

23 Nov 2006 23:47:12 GMT
Source: Reuters

Nov 24 (Reuters) - Northern Ireland's feuding political parties meet on Friday to take what London and Dublin hope will be a critical step towards restoring self-government in the British-ruled province.

Following are key events since the April 1998 "Good Friday" agreement largely ended 30 years of political and sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland:

June 1998 - Elections to a new Northern Ireland assembly. Protestant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble is elected First Minister-designate.

-- Aug - Car bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland, kills 29 in the worst single attack in nearly 30 years of violence. The Real IRA splinter group claims responsibility.

Dec 1999 - After months of wrangling over demands from unionists, who support the province's ties to Britain, that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) disarm, the province gets its own government in which Catholics and Protestants share power, ending 27 years of direct rule from London.

Feb 2000 - Britain suspends assembly amid Protestant anger at lack of IRA disarmament.

-- May - IRA says it will put its weapons into storage and allow inspections. Britain restores power to Belfast assembly.

July 2001 - Trimble resigns over IRA's failure to disarm.

-- Oct - IRA says it has put some weapons beyond use.

Oct 2002 - Sinn Fein offices at the Stormont parliament are raided by police investigating an alleged IRA spy ring. Britain suspends the assembly and other power-sharing institutions.

May 2003 - Britain postpones assembly elections indefinitely.

June 2004 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern set September deadline to end impasse.

-- Dec - Talks grind to a halt after the IRA rejects Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) demand that photographs be taken of the IRA getting rid of their arms.

Feb 2005 - IRA withdraws its offer to scrap its arsenal.

April 2005 - Sinn Fein calls on the IRA to end its armed struggle after a series of high-profile crimes such as the murder of popular Belfast man Robert McCartney caused international outrage, and a big bank raid in December 2004.

-- July - The IRA says it has ordered its guerrillas to dump arms and pursue their goals through purely peaceful means.

Oct 2006 - Northern Ireland's ceasefire watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), says it believes the IRA is no longer engaged in terrorism.

-- Blair and Ahern launch three days of talks with Northern Ireland's parties in Scotland. Britain and Ireland put forward a plan for reviving self rule despite the DUP and Sinn Fein failing to reach a compromise on two issues.

Nov 2006 - Britain and Ireland push ahead with plans to restore self-rule and have set elections for a new Assembly for March 7, 2007 even though the province's two main parties gave only partial support to a deal by the Nov. 10 deadline.

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Last updated:Thu Nov 23 23:49:06 2006