In 1998, the British government enshrined the principle of self-determination in legislation and also repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which first divided the island of Ireland. The Northern Ireland minister will call a referendum on a united Ireland if it is likely that a majority of the population would vote in favour of a united Ireland. If the referendum is rejected, it will take at least seven years before a new referendum can be held. The participants in the agreement were composed of two sovereign states (the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland), with armed forces and police forces involved in the riots. Two political parties, Sinn Féin and the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), were linked to paramilitary organisations: the IRA (Commissional Irish Republican Army) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), associated with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), had withdrawn from the talks three months earlier. It is essential that the agreement obliges the parties to adopt democratic and peaceful methods to resolve political issues, to use their influence to end paramilitary groups and to normalise security measures in Northern Ireland. The British government is virtually out of the game and neither parliament nor the British people have, as part of this agreement, the legal right to obstruct the achievement of Irish unity if it had the consent of the people of the North and The South… Our nation is and will remain a nation of 32 circles. Antrim and Down are and will remain a part of Ireland, just like any southern county. [20] The agreement sets out a framework for the creation and number of institutions in three “parts.” The Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is included in the UK`s withdrawal agreement from the EU, confirmed that the Good Friday Agreement must be protected in all its parts. The agreement was formally concluded between the British and Irish governments as well as eight northern Ireland political parties, including Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and the Alliance Party.
The DUP was the only major political group to oppose it. The agreement brought together republicans and trade unionists after decades of political conflict in Northern Ireland The agreement was approved by voters across Ireland in two referendums on 22 May 1998.