 The substance of the Agreement ( formally referred to as the Belfast Agreement ) was later endorsed by <unk> in both parts of Ireland . The Agreement restored self @-@ government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power @-@ sharing in a regional Executive drawn from the major parties in a new Northern Ireland Assembly , with entrenched <unk> for the two main communities . The Executive is jointly headed by a First Minister and deputy First Minister drawn from the unionist and nationalist parties . Violence had decreased greatly after the Provisional IRA and loyalist <unk> in 1994 and in 2005 the Provisional IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and an independent commission supervised its <unk> and that of other nationalist and unionist paramilitary organisations . 
