The Good Friday agreement is under threat – but it’s key to resolving Brexit | Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern
We achieved peace in 1998 by involving people on all sides. May and Corbyn must see why a confirmatory vote is so essential
Twenty-one years ago, on Good Friday 1998, we put our signatures to the agreement to end the conflict in Northern Ireland. Our names, as prime minister and taoiseach, on that document were followed by individuals from across the political spectrum in the UK and Ireland who had worked so painstakingly towards peace. The Good Friday agreement was a monumental moment for our two countries, and the people in both countries seized the opportunities it presented.
But when we felt the “hand of history upon our shoulder” on 10 April, 1998, it was pushing us to the start of a process, not signalling the end of one. In our eyes, the people of Ireland, north and south, have been signing that agreement every day since. Because it is the everyday actions and interactions of people, businesses, civil society, politicians and governments that enable a lasting peace, not signatures on a piece of paper.