Ireland

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Social Issues

Abortion is one of the most contentious social issues in Ireland, and the country’s abortion laws are among the strictest in Europe. In 1992 the Irish Supreme Court ruled abortion legal in Ireland in the case of life-threatening situations for the mother, including the threat of suicide. In the same year, Irish voters approved ballot measures that would guarantee access to information about abortion and legalize foreign travel to obtain an abortion. Although Irish women won the right to travel abroad to seek an abortion, a 1993 Supreme Court decision upheld a ban on the distribution of information about overseas abortions within the country. In March 2002 a referendum to stop permitting abortion for women considered a suicide risk was narrowly defeated.

In 1995 Irish voters approved a referendum to overturn a constitutional ban on divorce. Divorce had been illegal in Ireland since 1925, shortly after the establishment of the Irish Free State, and the ban was affirmed in the 1937 constitution. The measure won endorsement by voters despite vigorous opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Ireland’s divorce rate remains lower than in most of the world’s industrialized countries.

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Economy

In December 1991 Ireland signed the Maastricht Treaty on European Union after securing a special provision protecting Irish abortion laws from future EU policies. The treaty was ratified by a national referendum in June 1992, and the EU was formally inaugurated in November 1993. Because Ireland’s per capita income fell below the average for members of the EU, Ireland’s disadvantaged regions qualified for substantial economic development funds. These funds, directed mainly toward education, training, and the development of infrastructure, including transportation and communications, helped modernize the Irish economy. By the late 1990s, Ireland’s per capita income exceeded the EU average.

The nation’s economy also benefited from the Irish government’s strong encouragement of foreign investment. During the 1990s many large corporations, especially those in the computer and electronics industries, opened facilities in Ireland. Ireland’s economy was expected to continue growing into the 21st century, although the growth rate was expected to slow toward the end of the first decade. The main downside to Ireland’s dramatic economic growth has been inflation. Ireland’s rate of inflation reached a high of 5.2 percent in 2000, and in 2002 remained nearly double the average inflation rate of the other EU countries to adopt the euro, the EU’s single currency. Although it later dropped somewhat, it stayed above the EU average of 2.3 percent.

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Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom

The long search for lasting peace and political stability in Northern Ireland remains unresolved. However, attempts to end the violence have brought the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom closer together as both sides have sought to build consensus on future political structures for the island.

In December 1993 Irish prime minister Albert Reynolds and British prime minister John Major signed the Downing Street Declaration, a conciliatory peace declaration that attempted to set a positive tone for ending hostilities in Northern Ireland. After initially rejecting the document, the IRA announced in August 1994 that it intended to suspend military operations in favor of peace negotiations.

In February 1995 the Irish and British governments established a written framework for negotiating the status of Northern Ireland. The document recognized Northern Ireland’s right to self-determination and proposed to restore home rule in the province (which had been suspended in 1972) with the creation of a provincial parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly. It also called for the establishment of a cross-border body composed of members of the proposed assembly and representatives of the Irish parliament. However, negotiations stalled over the issue of IRA disarmament. Ireland opposed British demands for complete disarmament of the IRA as a precondition for Sinn Fein’s participation in the talks. The IRA resumed its terrorist activities in February 1996.

The peace process was revitalized after Labour Party leader Tony Blair won a landslide victory over John Major’s Conservative Party in the May 1997 British parliamentary elections. After taking office, Blair declared the talks a top priority. The IRA renewed its cease-fire in July, and after the British government dropped its demands for complete IRA disarmament, Sinn Fein joined the negotiations. Initial progress was limited. However, the talks gradually proceeded with the help of Blair and Irish prime minister Ahern and under the oversight of former United States senator George Mitchell, who set April 9, 1998, as the deadline for agreement. Although many feared the process would collapse, Mitchell kept the talks on track. On April 10, after an all-night negotiating session, and slightly past the deadline, the talks culminated in a historic agreement.

The Northern Ireland peace agreement, commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement or the Belfast Agreement, authorized the creation of a provincial assembly for Northern Ireland to replace direct rule of the province by the British government. An executive cabinet would oversee this body. The agreement created a North-South Ministerial Council to coordinate policies between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and a Council of the Isles to allow representatives from both parts of Ireland to meet with representatives from the British, Scottish, and Welsh legislative bodies. It also called for the Republic of Ireland to amend its constitution to drop its territorial claim to Northern Ireland.

The peace agreement was put to a vote in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland on May 22. In the Republic of Ireland an overwhelming 94 percent of voters endorsed the agreement; in Northern Ireland, the peace agreement won support from 71 percent of voters.

Despite several false starts and many delays, the British Parliament formally transferred a wide range of powers to Northern Ireland’s provincial government on December 1, 1999. The following day, the Irish government issued a statement formally renouncing its territorial claim on Northern Ireland, and Irish and British officials signed an agreement setting up the North-South Ministerial Council. In the years ahead, however, an unresolved conflict over the pace of IRA disarmament triggered a series of crises that repeatedly put Northern Ireland’s provincial assembly on hold and threatened to undermine the peace process.

The peace process finally bore fruit in 2007, when the Protestant and Catholic factions in Northern Ireland agreed to share power and form a government. In March a historic meeting took place between longtime foes Gerry Adams, leader of the largely Catholic Sinn Fein, and Ian Paisley, leader of the predominantly Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). A new power-sharing government took office in May.

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