Troubled path of IRA disarmament

The following is a summary of the key events in the debate over paramilitary weapons:

:: AUGUST 31, 1994: The IRA announces a “complete cessation of military operations”.

:: JANUARY 26, 1996: Former US Senator George Mitchell publishes a report which calls for a phasing-out of paramilitary weapons in the North and a commitment from all sides entering talks to principles of non-violence and democracy.

:: FEBRUARY 9, 1996: The IRA ceasefire ends with a bomb in London’s Docklands which kills two people and causes millions of pounds of damage.

:: JULY 20, 1997: The IRA reinstates its ceasefire.

:: APRIL 10, 1998: The Good Friday Agreement is signed. Among the contentious issues covered in the historic breakthrough is the decommissioning of weapons.

:: NOVEMBER 27, 1999: The Ulster Unionist Council backs proposals to go into a power-sharing government with Sinn Féin on the basis that IRA decommissioning will follow.

:: DECEMBER 2, 1999: The power-sharing executive, featuring Martin McGuinness as Education Minister, meets for the first time after 20 months of wrangle and delay.

:: FEBRUARY 11, 2000: Just two months later Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson signs an order suspending the Assembly after a failure to secure IRA disarmament.

:: MAY 30, 2000: Devolution is restored after Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble secures his party's backing to go back into government with Sinn Féin on a pledge from republicans that they will begin a process to completely and verifiably put their weapons beyond use.

:: JULY 1, 2001: Mr Trimble resigns as First Minister over the continuing arms impasse.

:: AUGUST 6, 2001: General John de Chastelain, head of the international arms decommissioning body, says the IRA has put forward a disarmament plan.

:: AUGUST 10, 2001: With no sign of the IRA about to decommission and no hint that unionists will accept anything less, Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid suspends devolution for 24 hours, resetting the clock for a deal by six weeks.

:: SEPTEMBER 21, 2001: Mr Reid announces a second technical suspension, saying it will be the last.

:: OCTOBER 23, 2001: In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in America and the arrest in August of three suspected IRA men in Colombia, the IRA begins a process of disarmament.

:: APRIL 8, 2002: The IRA announces it has put a second tranche of its arsenal beyond use.

:: OCTOBER 14, 2002: Mr Reid announces the suspension of devolution and reintroduction of direct rule following allegations that the IRA operated a spy ring at Stormont.

:: MAY 1, 2003: British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces the postponement of the Assembly elections until the autumn because of a lack of clarity over the IRA’s arms position and willingness to abandon its armed struggle.

:: OCTOBER 29, 2003: General de Chastelain confirms the IRA has disposed of the largest consignment of weapons so far. Despite this, the rolling out of a peace process deal crashes spectacularly when Mr Trimble refuses to take part because of a lack of detail about the IRA’s latest act of disarmament.

:: DECEMBER 8, 2004: Talks aimed at achieving a previously unthinkable deal between the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin collapse when the IRA refuses to give in to demands that the decommissioning of its entire arsenal should be photographed.

:: JULY 28, 2005: The IRA orders an end to its armed campaign. They confirm their armed struggle will end from 4pm and that all IRA units have been ordered to dump arms.