25 years on: The IRA ceasefire of 1994
A quarter of a century has passed since the IRA called a ceasefire on 31 August 1994. Our Chief Reporter Damien Edgar looks back at that historic decision.
In a statement at the time, the republican terror group said it would initiate a 'complete cessation of military operations from midnight.'
It followed years of talks behind the scenes involving the British government, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the IRA.
Context was also key, with two decades of conflict leaving Northern Ireland war-weary.
Atrocities like the Shankill Road bombing in Ocober 1993 also contributed to an appetite for peace.
That blast killed 10 people, among them 13-year-old Leanne Murray.
Her brother Gary said it was a day that he will never be able to escape.
"It was very cloudy, there was lots of dust everywhere when the bomb exploded," he said.
"There were people running up the street screaming, it was just an absolutely horrendous day.
"I think it was all that week, including council workers being killed, that was one of the bloodiest week of the Troubles.
"I think that brought the ceasefire forward a bit, that was really when they started talking about it."
That atrocity has shaped Gary's outlook in the intervening years and it is something from which he cannot get away.
However, he said at the time, news of the ceasefire brought him comfort.
"Absolutely outstanding - that's the way I was looking at it," he said.
"No kids or teenagers were going to get injured or have to go through what I went through.
"But it's still very much part of me, I'll never forgive the IRA for it.
"I'll never forgive them, it's still very hard for me to move forward."
For those who had been involved in the IRA there were mixed feelings too, with some glad to see the cessation and others advocating for continuing the conflict.
Former IRA volunteer Gerry Kelly, now the Sinn Féin MLA for North Belfast, said the terror group had been looking for a political resolution for years.
"There's all sorts of speculation about what that pressure involved but in conflicts, there always death and tragedies, sometimes quite disturbing tragedies," he said.
"But I think what the IRA did throughout all of that, was they were prepared to listen.
"People of my generation didn't wake up and think, the thing to do was go out and fight, it wasn't in our bones.
"Everyone wanted a peaceful way forward, that's what the civil rights movement was about and then we had conflict."
However, 25 years down the road, the New IRA and Continuity IRA are once again active, with five high profile attacks on police already this year.
The question is whether the lessons of the past have been learned and whether the scales of history are tipping once more toward violence.