This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

Good evening, a historic day at Stormant after two years of talks and after a generation of

bloodshed and decades of division and acrimony a new era of peace.

In 1998, political leaders in Northern Ireland signed a peace agreement.

They hoped it would end the sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants who'd been fighting each other for decades.

At the root of the conflict was the question of whether Northern Ireland should reunite with the rest of Ireland or whether it should

remain part of the United Kingdom. That's Scott Guryan he's the creator of the

Far From Home podcast. Most Catholics were nationalists meaning they wanted to

govern themselves

as part of a united Ireland.

Most Protestants were loyalists, also called unionists,

who felt a stronger allegiance to the British crown.

Parramilitaries on both sides had carried out kidnappings, bombings, and assassinations.

More than 3,000 people had died.

But the Peace Accord aimed to end that violence.

Well, I look forward equally to end that violence.

But I look forward equally to a new era of friendship and reconciliation between unionists and

nationalists in which each tradition can learn truly the value of the other.

That was more than 20 years ago and while the political situation in Northern Ireland is certainly better today it's hard to

say that friendship and reconciliation are the norm.

Northern Ireland remains divided.

In some cases, quite literally.

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