Talk:Good Friday Agreement

External Links - GFA full text
The UN Peacemaker site, which used to be the source of the link to the GFA full text is down, so I have replaced it with a link from the Northern Ireland Office.

Anyway, it is also available from the Irish foreign ministry at: Microsoft Word - Document1 (dfa.ie). Same text, so not put it here also. Nordrhein-Westfalen-CanlntoSpace (talk) 23:51, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

The negotiation of the GFA
I came here looking for a detailed account of the negotiations that led to the implementatio of the GFA, but could find neither that nor a linke to where it might be found. Is there such a thing? If not, could we not do with one? Cooke (talk) 13:31, 22 February 2023 (UTC)


 * It's included in The Troubles, but not in great detail. Northern Ireland peace process gives a timeline, but in a list format. I think a detailed account would add to this article. Scolaire (talk) 17:01, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Title of Agreement
The text of the Agreement does not seem to give it a title, but simply make reference to the parties. When the Agreement was signed, the impression given in the media was that it was known as the Good Friday Agreement. Since the Conservative Party came to office again in the UK, however, the term Belfast Agreement seems to have become quite widely current as well. One can imagine that the unionist movement, being preponderantly Presbyterian in religion, might see the reference to Good Friday as offensively Catholic (though my understanding is that Presbyterians also mark the passion of Christ on Good Friday), and that the close Parliamentary relationship between the Conservatives and the DUP might cause a wider preference for the term "Belfast Agreement". But I would suggest that this article give a little more information on the history of the term "Belfast Agreement" in this context. Deipnosophista (talk) 12:00, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
 * The text of the agreement is headed "The Belfast Agreement: An Agreement Reached at the Multi-Party Talks on Northern Ireland". It very quickly became known as "the Good Friday Agreement", and it is still called that by most people today, but there have always been those that used "Belfast Agreement". I don't think that anybody of any church would find the words Good Friday "offensively Catholic", but I am open to correction. Scolaire (talk) 15:33, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
 * The PDF you shared is the Agreement as it was presented to UK Parliament. The UK government refers to the Agreement as the "Belfast Agreement", but the Agreement isn't bilaterally called that. This version provided by Ireland's government is titled "The Agreement", which from what I've seen is generally considered the more neutral title (though from what I've seen the Good Friday Agreement is the most common).
 * It's like how the UK tends to say "British Isles" while joint declarations between the UK & Ireland tend to say "These Fair Isles" or similar. Placeholderer (talk) 16:13, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

Proposal to Standardize Agreement Name
The article currently refers to the Agreement by a mix of "Good Friday Agreement" and "Belfast Agreement" seemingly arbitrarily. I think this could potentially cause some confusion. I think it might be beneficial to standardize the name in one of three ways:


 * 1) Refer to the agreement as the Good Friday Agreement throughout the article, as it is the most common name;
 * 2) Refer to the agreement as the Good Friday Agreement in most cases, but as the Belfast Agreement when discussing unionist or British perspectives;
 * 3) Refer to the agreement as "the Agreement" whenever it wouldn't cause too much ambiguity. In this case it would make sense to add "or simply the Agreement" or similar to the lead as a name of the Agreement (which I think should already be the case— thoughts? Should this be a separate proposal?)

Placeholderer (talk) 18:18, 11 February 2024 (UTC)


 * A Ctrl-F for "agreement" showed that the word appeared 146 times, the vast majority as simply "the agreement" (and without the lead needing to say that "the Agreement" is a name for the Agreement). "Good Friday Agreement" appeared 21 times, and "Belfast Agreement" 16 times. "Belfast Agreement" should be changed to "Good Friday Agreement" in the nine cases where it appears outside the refs and the first sentence, since it is the title of the article, and the most common name. Tailoring the name occasionally to suit "unionist or British perspectives" makes no sense. Scolaire (talk) 11:25, 13 February 2024 (UTC)
 * While I acknowledge that the article uses "the Agreement" a lot without it being given as a name in the lead, I think that enough sources clarify "the Agreement" to be an accepted name for the Agreement that I think adding it to the lead should be considered. Should I add this as a separate proposal, though?— I'm still learning the conventions. Placeholderer (talk) 15:33, 13 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Yes, those sources say "or simply the Agreement", but that doesn't mean that adding it here will improve the article. As I've often said, WP:V says that everything in the article should be supported by reliable sources, not that everything in reliable sources must be added to the article.
 * And no, you've raised this now; there's no need to start a new section to raise it again. Scolaire (talk) 16:13, 13 February 2024 (UTC)