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TIMELINE-Northern Ireland peace process

10 Mar 2009 01:01:49 GMT
Source: Reuters

March 10 (Reuters) - A police officer was shot dead in Northern Ireland late on Monday, the third killing in as many days, raising fears of a return of sectarian violence in the British province.

Following is a timeline 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.

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

Feb. 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".

Oct. 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.

Nov. 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.

April 2005 - Sinn Fein calls on the IRA to end its armed campaign after a series of high-profile crimes are linked to the group.

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

Oct. 2006 - The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) says it believes the IRA is no longer engaged in terrorism.

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

Jan. 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 IMC says the IRA's ruling Army Council is no longer operational and the guerrilla group does not pose a threat to peace.

Nov. 10 - The IMC reports that Irish Republican Army dissidents were behind a more concentrated period of attacks than at any time since 2004.

Jan. 31, 2009 - Police destroy a large bomb packed with 300 pounds of explosives in Castlewellan, south of Belfast. A splinter republican group claims responsibility.

March 7 - Gunmen kill two British soldiers and wound four other people at the Massereene base near Antrim.

March 9 - Policeman is shot dead in Craigavon.

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