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CHRONOLOGY-Highs and lows of Northern Ireland peace process

03 Sep 2008 17:57:43 GMT
Source: Reuters

Sept 3 (Reuters) - The Irish Republican Army's (IRA) ruling Army Council is no longer operational and the guerrilla group does not pose a threat to peace in Northern Ireland, an independent watchdog said on Wednesday.

Following are some key events since a 1998 deal largely ended 30 years of political and sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

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

August - Car bomb in the market town of Omagh, west of Belfast, kills 29 people in the worst single attack of the conflict. The Real IRA splinter group claims responsibility.

December 1999 - Northern Ireland gets its own government in which Protestants and Catholics share power after 27 years of direct rule from London.

February 2000 - Britain suspends assembly amid anger by Protestants, who support ties to Britain, over the failure of IRA guerrillas to disarm.

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

June 2001 - IRA political ally Sinn Fein overtakes its more moderate rival, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), as Northern Ireland's biggest nationalist party in British parliamentary elections.

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

October - IRA says it has put some weapons "beyond use".

October 2002 - Sinn Fein offices at the Stormont parliament are raided by police investigating an alleged IRA spy ring. Britain suspends the assembly and resumes direct rule.

November 2003 - Election takes place with Ian Paisley's hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) -- which opposed the Good Friday Agreement due to Sinn Fein's involvement -- overtaking the UUP as the province's biggest pro-British party.

June 2004 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern set a September deadline to end an impasse between long-time foes Sinn Fein and the DUP, but talks grind to a halt before the end of the year.

April 2005 - Sinn Fein calls on the IRA to end its armed campaign after a series of high-profile crimes linked to the group, including the 26.5 million pound ($52.5 million) Northern Bank robbery and the killing of Belfast man Robert McCartney, which sparked international outrage.

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

October 2006 - The IMC says it believes the IRA is no longer engaged in terrorism.

-- Blair and Ahern launch talks with Northern Ireland's parties in Scotland and put forward a plan for reviving self rule by a March 26 deadline.

January 2007 - Sinn Fein's mostly Catholic membership votes overwhelmingly to back the Protestant-dominated Police Service of Northern Ireland after decades of opposition and mistrust, fulfilling a key condition for the revival of the assembly.

March - Both the DUP and Sinn Fein increase their shares of the vote in new assembly elections.

-- DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams hold their first face-to-face meeting.

May - A new power-sharing assembly government is launched on May 8, with Paisley as first minister and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness as his deputy.

June 5, 2008 - Peter Robinson takes over as first minister, succeeding Ian Paisley who retired as DUP leader on May 31.

Sept 3 - The IRA's ruling Army Council is no longer operational and the guerrilla group does not pose a threat to peace in Northern Ireland, the Independent Monitoring Commission says.

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