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Victims of the Troubles gathered on a Co Down beach to watch the sunrise as they reflect on the Good Friday Agreement PA

Events marking 25th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement take place across island of Ireland

Victims of the Troubles gathered in Co Down to watch the sunrise this morning.

LAST UPDATE | 7 Apr 2023

COMMEMORATION EVENTS TO mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement are taking place across the island of Ireland today.

While the 25th anniversary of the signing of the accord is 10 April, the holy day of Good Friday will always be associated with the diplomatic feat that brought 30 years of bloodshed largely to an end.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams were among those to address a ceremony at Stormont.

Adams said in his address: “We’re all in a better place, and despite current challenges, the future is bright.”

He said countless lives had been saved by the agreement.

“The last 25 years have been up and down, and there have been many twists and turns, but one thing is for certain, we are all in a better place.

“Despite current challenges, the future is bright.”

Adams said the Good Friday Agreement was for everyone and it was “here to stay”.

He said differences of opinion “does not and should not stop us working together”.

In his address to the Stormont event former US Senator George Mitchell said history will judge favourably the politicians who made sacrifices to secure the Good Friday Agreement.

file-photo-dated-200799-of-left-to-right-then-prime-minister-tony-blair-former-us-senator-george-mitchell-and-then-irish-taoiseach-bertie-ahern-at-downing-street-london-to-announce-a-tightly-f George Mitchell with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 1999 Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Mitchell said people and politicians had rejected violence 25 years ago.

He said: “I believe the greatest heroes were the people of Northern Ireland and their political leaders.

“The people supported, worked for and established a democratic, peaceful process as their preferred form of governance.

“They rejected violence as a way to resolve their differences.”

Reflection

People from across Northern Ireland’s divided communities have come together at one of the region’s most notorious peace walls to mark the anniversary.

Northumberland Street in west Belfast connects the predominantly Catholic and nationalist Falls Road with the mainly Protestant and unionist Shankill Road.

However, it remains divided 25 years after the historic peace accord with two sets of steel gates which are locked at night for security reasons.

featureimage People standing together before taking part in the human peace wall at Northumberland Street PA PA

The former no-man’s land was today filled with people forming a human chain spanning the gates.

The event was organised by Pastor Jack McKee, whose New Life City Church stands between the two gates.

He said while the agreement has not been perfect, they wanted to mark the fact that the last 25 years were better than the previous 25 years.

Early this morning, some victims of the Troubles gathered on a Co Down beach to watch the sunrise as they looked back on the deal that changed the region’s future and became a blueprint for resolving global conflicts.

embedded271660943 PA PA

In Dublin the names of the nearly 3,600 people who died as a result of conflict in Northern Ireland between 1966 and 2019 were read out loud as part of a ceremony in St Stephen’s Green.

Minister of the Dublin Unitarian Church Rev Bridget Spain said the reading of the names is worthwhile to remember those who died.

featureimage Rev Bridget Spain and Trish Webb Duffy of the Unitarian Church Dublin PA PA

“It was such a waste of life, we don’t want to go back there,” she said.

“It gives those dead people a voice – just for the second it takes to read their name,” she added.

The names included journalist Lyra McKee who was shot dead by dissident republicans in Derry four years ago.

“25 years on (from the Good Friday Agreement), we seem to think that everything is OK,” Spain said.

“If our publicity here makes somebody think back to what it was like then and say: ‘We’re not going there, can we work towards something better?’

“It’s worth it.”

She said it can be very emotional reading the list of names.

The church said the commemoration is the only religious service of its kind in Ireland.

Powersharing collapsed

The anniversary of the historic deal comes as Northern Ireland’s powersharing institutions remain collapsed, in a protest by the DUP over post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Despite a fresh framework struck between the EU and the UK Government earlier this year that looked to tweak the operation of the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol, Stormont has not returned.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin visited Belfast yesterday for a number of engagements, including a meetings with relatives of those who were killed during the Troubles.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said today that “political leaders need to recapture the spirit and determination that was seen on this weekend 25 years ago.”

She said: “There is huge international goodwill towards Ireland, a huge appetite for progress, for investment but the economic opportunities that exist will not last forever and will only be properly realised with functioning institutions in place.

So let’s take this opportunity to work for all, to attract investment, to create jobs, to deliver change, to plan for the future.

“We need to restore the political institutions. We need progress. We need ambition,” McDonald said.

DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr said today that “the people of Northern Ireland were entitled to peace, it was a right.”

He told GB News: “Only a fool would not welcome peace … what we need to have is political stability, and the institutions that have flown from the Belfast Agreement have not been stable for about 40% of the time [since the Agreement].”

Biden visit

Next week, US President Joe Biden will visit Belfast in a trip to commemorate a quarter of a century since the US-brokered peace accord.

The following week, further events will be held which are to be attended by former US president Bill Clinton and his wife, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

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32 Comments
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    Mute Patrick Presley
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    Oct 26th 2023, 8:49 AM

    Enough punishment has been administered for the moment.

    186
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    Mute Donal Ronan
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    Oct 26th 2023, 9:08 AM

    Oops! Less profit for our robber banks, seeing as this is where they make most of their profits, lodging our deposits with the ECB.
    Just another way of socialising their profits at European taxpayers expense.

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    Mute did you every wonder
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:55 PM

    @Donal Ronan: But we have a regulator, apparently, that keeps prices in check !. Works great for energy and food prices !. Tax payers money at work.

    23
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    Mute larry smith
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    Oct 26th 2023, 9:03 AM

    A bank is being robbed by two gunmen . Everything went smoothly , quickly and quietly ,however before exiting the bank one gunman says to the other what kind of robbery is this if know one is injured or killed “you’re right kill that woman over there “says the other gunman ,
    What’s your name he asks the cashier the woman feebly replied Sophia,
    I can’t kill her as my wife is call Sophia,ok kill the man beside her ,hey fella what’s your name ,,Billy says the man but everyone calls me Sophia .

    108
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    Mute Liam Foy
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    Oct 26th 2023, 11:01 AM

    In what do we believe a bunch of very wealthy individuals in the ECB hiking interest rates, how well expert with experience are they. Lagarde is no expert but she leads the charge. Inflation has got much worse and still the EU has no idea how to contain it like the Japanese at their 3%. But their we go punishing decision for the average family is put off into some future date.

    37
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    Mute Roy Kenneally
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:39 PM

    @Liam Foy: Inflation isn’t worse. It was 8.6% in Sept 2022 and 5% in Sept 2023, ie. slowing down. It means the price of things are still going up, but not as quickly.

    13
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    Mute Paddy C
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:48 PM

    Lagarde said when she was here ‘she feels our pain’ doubt that somehow on her salary, pushing people into arrears and possibly homeless great work alright.

    34
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    Mute Timo
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    Oct 26th 2023, 12:08 PM

    And lucky to get 1.5% on a 5 year deposit account.
    What a joke

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    Mute Pato
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    Oct 26th 2023, 9:39 AM

    Have the idiots in the ECB finally recognised what everyone else knew all along, that hiking rates the way they did would eventually cause inflation rather than cure i

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    Mute Monetpenny
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    Oct 26th 2023, 12:33 PM

    @Pato: no. They didn’t get it during & in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 financial crash either. It is written in a widely read economics textbook somewhere that to control inflation (no matter what the cause or type of inflation) you must (‘MUST’ I tell ya) increase interest rates. So they do it.
    If inflation is ‘imported’ or is caused by government lockdowns & subsequent spending to stimulate an economy the government sedated or wars or foreign government policies that affect energy supply & costs it doesn’t matter.
    We don’t stop those wars. We don’t reverse government policy & increase energy supply.
    We increase interest rates.

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    Mute Mick Duvanny
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:41 PM

    @Monetpenny: See Turkey for what happens when you reduce interest rates during high inflation

    13
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    Mute Eddie Garvey
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    Oct 26th 2023, 3:36 PM

    They printed so much money to keep the economies booming, which had the effect of devaluing our money and our wages, which caused inflation to strike, then they massively increased interest rates to stop people spending the money they added to the system. They are literally making it up as they go along to ensure the wealthy stay wealthy

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    Mute World Taekwondo Association Master Sheamus
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    Oct 26th 2023, 11:02 AM

    About Time, Seriously

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    Mute Des Leavy
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    Oct 26th 2023, 10:51 AM

    Comments Closed

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    Mute Jonathan Hanlon
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:35 PM

    Please start dropping

    14
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    Mute Alan Fitzgerald
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    Oct 26th 2023, 2:45 PM

    Surely a huge chunk of inflation is down to energy price increases and interest rates increases will have little to no effect on these. Government tax and excise increases also fuels the fire and again interest rates won’t effect these.

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    Mute R Incognito
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    Oct 26th 2023, 2:32 PM

    My fixed rate @ 2.6% is ending in November. Should I re-fix @ 4.15% ( lowest fixed rate available to me ) or stay on a variable @ 4.50% and wait and see if things improve ? I don’t know what to do :-(

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    Mute Paddy C
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    Oct 28th 2023, 9:25 AM

    @R Incognito: very hard one to answer,Im on tracker and my mortgage is up through the roof now for not fixing it and I was also advised to fix it unless I was sure I could keep up with rising payments but if I fix tracker is gone and too long left to go,the only thing I would say is if you could fix it short term at least you wouldnt be after commiting to it too much,a long fixed rate is a nightmare if rates drop, we were on fixed years ago of 5.4 and crash came and rates dropped and losing a fortune had to pay 4,600 to break out of it for the mortgage to drop 400 a month so my advice is if it’s variable try short term fixed especially now that they’re pausing increases

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    Mute
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    Oct 26th 2023, 2:07 PM

    Increasing interest rates to combat this inflation is very close to being useless. Majority of the inflation is a result of the increase in oil prices and from the war in Ukraine affecting supply of various commodities including grain. A serious question for ECB, how does increasing interest rates change oil prices or increase supply of commodities. Wouldn’t it more effective having more constructive negotiation with the Saudis and other oil producers. Also putting a ceiling on the price of basic goods, bread, eggs, pasta, etc. Increasing interest rates was always a possibility of causing recession, plus more unnecessary pain for the less well off.

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    Mute John Moore
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    Oct 26th 2023, 3:43 PM

    Rising interest rates is the only tool that the ECB have to combat inflation. But it can only do so much unless you really want to jack up rates and cause a pretty bad recession. But ECB technocrats act as though tinkering with rates contains all of the answers. It’s mostly for show to look as though they are doing something. About half of the price rises are through companies profiteering. Banks are not passing on nearly enough of the windfall through deposit rates. Whatever way the consumer turns they lose.

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    Mute
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    Oct 26th 2023, 11:00 AM

    I have many money

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:57 PM

    And few brains cells.

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