On the 10th April 1998 the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was signed and referendums on the Agreement were held and passed in both parts of Ireland. Following elections the first power sharing Assembly met in July 1998 but failed to form an executive until December 1999.  It has operated intermittently and been suspended on five occasions; the longest from 2002 to 2007. The current 6th Assembly was suspended in 2017 and reconvened in January 2010.

The early years of the Assembly were preoccupied with decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, demilitarization of the British army, and reforms to policing. Most of the suspensions were due to Unionist pressure on decommissioning. The IRA required assurances and evidence of the demilitarization by the British Army and real reforms to policing. Once measures were taken by the British government the international decommissioning body was able to verify that arms belonging to paramilitaries were being decommissioned. In…