The Good Friday Agreement was passed in 1997. Seen as the end of ‘The Troubles’ which was a long period of violence between Catholics, and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Catholics represent 42%, and Protestants represent 37% of the population of the North who tend to vote for one of the two parties that represent their group known as Sinn Fein (Catholic Natonalists) and The DUP (Protestant Unionists).
The Good Friday Agreement states that for the reunification of Ireland (The North, and Republic) to occur there must be a vote passed in both states by the majority of the citizens.
For the Purposes of this debate, Northern Ireland has passed the vote with a majority. The vote in the Republic is due to take place asking the Irish whether they’d like to be reunified with the North.