The peace agreements followed a 30-year conflict known as the Troubles, in which over 3,500 people were killed and 47,500 injured,[2] and in which republican paramilitary groups such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army waged a campaign to bring about a united Ireland.
Mainstream republicans, represented by Sinn Féin, supported the Agreement as a means of achieving Irish unity peacefully.
Dissidents saw this as an abandonment of the goal of an independent Irish republic and acceptance of partition.
Some dissident republican political groups, such as Republican Sinn Féin and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, support political violence against the British security forces and oppose the Provisional IRA's 1994 ceasefire; other groups, such as the Republican Network for Unity, wish to achieve their goals only through peaceful means.
Since the IRA ceasefire, splinter groups have continued an armed campaign against the British security forces in Northern Ireland.