ABSTRACT
The announcement by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of a complete cessation of military operations in September 1994 was heralded internationally. The declaration confounded many pessimists and appeared to open the way to a lasting settlement of the conflict in the province. The various political shifts and developments which enabled the IRA ceasefire, and six weeks later the Loyalist ceasefire, are commonly referred to as the peace process (Fitzgerald, 1994, pp. 12–15; Wilson, 1994, p.5). The peace process has been welcomed as the most significant development in the last quarter of a century of the provinces troubled history, but it did not indicate a final resolution of the conflict. The course of the peace process has not been free of turbulence. Although the ceasefire marked a break from the past, relations between the British government and Irish Republicans have continued to be acrimonious. This acrimony came to a dramatic head with the IRA bombing of Canary Wharf in London’s docklands in February 1996.
