Editing Northern Ireland peace process (section)

===Towards agreement===
*Tuesday 26 August 1997: The British and Irish governments jointly signed an agreement to set up an [[Independent International Commission on Decommissioning]] (IICD). [[U2]] held a concert at Botanic Gardens, in Belfast, with an audience of around 40,000.
*Friday 29 August 1997: The [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]], [[Mo Mowlam|Marjorie Mowlam]], accepted the IRA ceasefire as genuine and invited Sinn Féin into the multi-party talks at Stormont.
*Tuesday 9 September 1997: Representatives of Sinn Féin entered Stormont to sign a pledge that the party would abide by the [[Mitchell Principles]].
*Thursday 11 September 1997: The IRA said that they "would have problems with sections of the Mitchell Principles", but that what Sinn Féin decided to do "was a matter for them".
*Thursday 11 September 1997: The Belfast Telegraph published the first of two articles over two days with results of a survey it conducted with Queens College. Survey questions were developed in cooperation with the leading parties in Northern Ireland. Ninety-two per cent of respondents (86 per cent of Protestants and 98 per cent of Catholics) said they wanted the party they support to stay in the Stormont talks.<ref name=":0"/>
*Monday 15 September 1997: Multi-Party Talks resumed. The Ulster Unionist Party, the [[Progressive Unionist Party]], and the Ulster Democratic Party instead attended a special meeting at the UUP headquarters, and re-entered the talks on Wednesday.
*Wednesday 24 September 1997: Procedures were agreed at the Multi-party Talks, decommissioning of paramilitary weapons was sidestepped, and the [[Independent International Commission on Decommissioning]] was formally launched.
*Tuesday 7 October 1997: Substantive talks began at Stormont.
*Friday 17 October 1997: The [[Parades Commission]] was announced. Its membership and powers attracted criticism from unionists.
*Thursday 6 November 1997: Around 12 members of Sinn Féin resigned in protest at the acceptance of the Mitchell Principles.
*Sunday 9 November 1997: During a radio interview on the tenth anniversary of the [[Remembrance Day bombing|Enniskillen bomb]] which killed 11 people on 8 November 1987, Gerry Adams said he was "deeply sorry about what happened".
*Saturday 27 December 1997: Inside the Maze Prison, members of the [[Irish National Liberation Army]] shot and killed [[Billy Wright (loyalist)|Billy Wright]], the [[Loyalist Volunteer Force]] leader.
*Saturday 10 January 1998: ''[[Belfast Telegraph|The Belfast Telegraph]]'' published the first of four stories over four days with results of an opinion survey it had conducted with Queens University. Questions were developed in cooperation with the major parties in Northern Ireland. Seventy per cent of Protestants said the most important step to ensure lasting peace would be to disband paramilitary groups; 78 per cent of Catholics said the most important step towards a lasting peace would be a bill of right guaranteeing equality for all.<ref name=":0"/>
*Friday 23 January 1998: The [[Ulster Defence Association|Ulster Freedom Fighters]] (UFF), a cover name for the [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA), reinstated their ceasefire. This was taken as an admission that they had been responsible for the murders of several Catholics.
*Monday 26 January 1998: The talks moved to Lancaster House in London. The UDP were barred from the talks, following UFF/UDA involvement in three more murders. The governments stated that the UDP could re-enter the talks if the UFF maintained its renewed ceasefire.
*Thursday 29 January 1998: [[Tony Blair]], the British Prime Minister, announced a new inquiry into "[[Bloody Sunday (1972)|Bloody Sunday]]" in [[Derry]] on 30 January 1972. This inquiry became known as the [[Bloody Sunday Inquiry|Saville Inquiry]]. The previous inquiry was widely regarded as a whitewash.
*Friday 20 February 1998: The British and Irish governments announced a 17-day exclusion of Sinn Féin from the talks because of IRA involvement in two killings in Belfast on 9 and 10 February 1998. Sinn Féin organised street protests over their exclusion.
*Monday 23 March 1998: Sinn Féin agreed to rejoin the talks, following the expiry of their exclusion a fortnight before, on 9 March.
*Tuesday 31 March 1998: ''The Belfast Telegraph'' published the first of four article over four days reporting results of a survey they conducted with Queens University. Survey questions were developed in cooperation with the leading parties in Northern Ireland. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents (74 per cent of Protestants and 81 per cent of Catholics) said they would vote 'yes' for an agreement supported by a majority of the political parties taking part in the talks.<ref name=":0"/>
*Wednesday 25 March 1998: The chairman of the talks, [[George J. Mitchell|Senator George Mitchell]], set a two-week deadline for an agreement.
*Friday 3 April 1998: The [[Saville Inquiry|Bloody Sunday Inquiry]], chaired by Lord Saville, an English Law Lord, opened.
*Thursday 9 April 1998: Talks continued past the midnight deadline. [[Jeffrey Donaldson]], who had been a member of the Ulster Unionist Party talks team walked out, causing speculation about a split in the party.
*[[Good Friday]], 10 April 1998: At 5.30pm (over 17 hours after the deadline) George Mitchell stated: "I am pleased to announce that the two governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland have reached agreement".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/14118775|title=What was the Good Friday Agreement?|publisher=BBC News|date=10 April 2018|access-date=22 October 2019|archive-date=21 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021123004/https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/14118775|url-status=live}}</ref> It emerged later that [[Bill Clinton|President Clinton]] of the USA had made a number of telephone calls to party leaders to encourage them to reach this agreement.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-43660970|title=Good Friday Agreement was 'work of genius'|publisher=BBC News|date=10 April 2018|access-date=22 October 2019|archive-date=3 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203160314/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-43660970|url-status=live}}</ref>
*Saturday 15 August 1998: [[Omagh bombing]] by the [[Real Irish Republican Army|Real IRA]] resulted in 29 deaths and hundreds of injuries. It was the single worst incident in Northern Ireland during the conflict.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/omagh_bomb|title=Omagh bomb|publisher=BBC News|date=15 August 1998|access-date=24 December 2019|archive-date=26 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226141532/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/omagh_bomb|url-status=live}}</ref>

The agreement, known as the [[Good Friday Agreement]], included a devolved, inclusive government, prisoner release, troop reductions, targets for paramilitary decommissioning, provisions for polls on Irish reunification, and [[civil rights]] measures and "[[parity of esteem]]" for the two communities in Northern Ireland.