The Consent Vote and Omagh
Multi-party negotiations at Stormont had been under way for almost two years when their final phase reached its conclusion on Good Friday, 10 April. The resulting agreement was the work of the British and Irish governments and most of Northern Ireland’s principal political parties, facilitated by the former United States senator George Mitchell. It did not require nationalists or unionists to abandon their aspirations. Instead, it set out rules by which those aspirations could be pursued peacefully and democratically.