ABSTRACT
In the second half of 1994, twenty-five years after British troops were first deployed on the streets of Belfast and Derry/Londonderry in aid of the civil power, the main republican and loyalist paramilitary organizations declared ceasefires. This chapter examines the steps that led up to the ceasefires. It explores the decisions of the paramilitary organizations to halt their campaigns of violence. The chapter provides a discussion of why the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) first ended and then restored its ceasefire and how these events have affected the prospects for a durable peace in Northern Ireland. It concludes with a speculation about what the future might be for paramilitary organizations within Northern Ireland politics in a variety of contexts, including that of an enduring truce between republicans and loyalists. In Northern Ireland, unusually, it is used to refer to nongovernmental organizations that have used or threatened to use political violence.
