Watch: What is the Good Friday Agreement and why does it matter?

The Good Friday Agreement, sometimes referred to as the Belfast Agreement, is a political commitment from the UK and Irish governments to bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The people of Northern Ireland voted to approve the agreement in 1998, after decades of violence in the country between Loyalists and Nationalists, which ended the Republic of Ireland's claim over the six counties of the north without the requirement of a hard border.

Operation Banner was the longest continuous deployment of troops in UK Armed Forces history and lasted almost 38 years between 14 August 1969 and 31 July 2007, with more than 300,000 members of the UK Armed Forces deployed in this time.

• What led to the Troubles in Northern Ireland?
• What was it like to serve in Northern Ireland during the Troubles?
• Government to introduce statute of limitations on Troubles prosecutions