British troops were sent into Northern Ireland to patrol the country. They still remained there in 1994. The Catholic minority wanted a reunion with the Republic of Ireland, which was mainly Catholic. The Protestants of Northern Ireland resisted the reunification. The IRA gave no amount of time for the duration of the cease fire, nor did they surrender their weapons. There were two earlier cease-fires in 1972 and 1975, but they failed to last. .
Nationalists, supporters of the Irish Republican Army and others have grown tired of the Northern Ireland conflict, and celebrated the announcement of the cease-fire. The IRA has commanded its units to obey a complete halt of military actions. In the first public meeting between Gerry Adams (the leader of Sinn Fein), Albert Reynolds (the Irish Republic's prime minister), and John Hume (the leader of Northern Ireland's Catholic nationalist), the British government was not pleased with the stating of the cease-fire. The British government was warily optimistic about the conference. A political scandal led to the collapse of the Irish government in Dublin. Throughout the years, Dublin acted as a halfway house between the Irish, British and American governments. The prime minister Albert Reynolds was replaced by John Bruton. .
A terrorist, loyalist and Protestant militia called the Ulster Defense Association shot and killed a Catholic man. The loyalists work with the sympathetic Protestant officers in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. This proved that the IRA was not the only forceful group in the Northern Ireland crisis. The Protestant militia soon after the killing called a cease-fire. This group was responsible for more deaths than the IRA, in the two years before the cease-fire was called. .
Ian Paisley, a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, protested that the IRA must surrender their arms before any contact between the IRA and the British government can proceed.