Chapter The "Troubles" of Irish Politics - Study Guide by History

Trimble won the backing of his party to re-enter the power-sharing assembly at Stormont despite no progress on decommissioning of IRA arms. Power was restored to Stormont on 29 May 2000. During the Troubles terrorist violence has never been far from the political scene and it continues with dissident groups of the IRA and Unionist paramilitaries. In Britain the police exploded a bomb found on a railway line in west London. Dissident Irish republican groups were believed to be responsible for that bomb and a subsequent rocket attack on MI6 headquarters in London.

'It seems the historic inability in Britain to comprehend Irish feelings and sensitivities still remains.' (Charles Haughey, 1988) It appears however that though Haughey's words were indeed valid during the later 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, not to mention hundreds of years of Irish history, into the twenty-first century turning-points such as the Downing Street Declaration of 1993 and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 reveal a changed attitude of the British government to the "Ireland Question". Britain and international diplomats such as George Mitchell are increasingly taking the role of mediator in the Northern Ireland peace process, aiming to bring the political and paramilitary factions together, and indeed the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic, and promote a working relationship. The British government do indeed seem understand the complexity and variety of Unionist and Nationalist aspirations and demands, and rather than seeking to retain a former colony of settlement through self-interest are concerned to bring peace, stability and prosperity.