A proposed referendum on northern Irish issues is accepted by all the relevant political parties in what becomes known as the Good Friday Agreement

In the referendum to endorse the Good Friday Agreement, the terms are accepted by majorities in both the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

The Real IRA kills 26 people and injures about 200 with a bomb planted in Omagh, in northern Ireland

A translation by Irish author Seamus Heaney brings many new readers to the Old English poem Beowulf

The new Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended because of IRA failure to decommission arms

The republic of Ireland is the fastest growing economy in the EU, with a GDP growth of more than 10%

Ian Paisley's hard-line Democratic Unionist Party wins in elections to the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly

The Provisional IRA announces a formal end to armed conflict and orders units to dump all their weapons

The Republic of Ireland votes in a referendum to permit same-sex marriage , the first time that a state legalises same-sex marriage through a popular vote