The events marking the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement have concluded, with a major conference in Belfast last week attended by many of the surviving participants.
It was a moment to remember the contributions of several giants in the history of Northern Ireland, people who made history-changing contributions to ending the cycle of violence that the North had descended into since the early 1970s, and from which there seemed no escape. Nobel Prize winners John Hume and David Trimble were honoured for their courage and perseverance in the cause of peace. Without Hume, Senator George Mitchell said, there would have been no peace process; without Trimble, no peace agreement.
Participants also remembered the bravery and decency of Séamus Mallon, Hume’s long-time deputy who became the deputy first minister when the power-sharing administration was established. Mo Mowlam brought the fresh approach that the North needed. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin and Ian Paisley of the DUP made war, but then made peace. All have since died, but their legacy lives on.
Other participants in the process were able to join in the celebrations. Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair formed, during their long periods as leaders of their countries, a remarkable partnership that had its most productive and brilliant flowering at the negotiations in advance of the agreement. With the US president Bill Clinton – also present with his wife Hillary, a substantial figure in this story in her own right – Ahern and Blair formed a triumvirate that both drove the negotiations and subsequently ushered Northern Ireland towards working the power-sharing arrangements.
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Clinton’s dedication to ending the conflict and sustaining peace in Northern Ireland was indefatigable, and our island remains indebted to him. But perhaps his greatest contribution was in convincing George Mitchell to act as chairman of the talks and effective midwife to the peace process. This remarkable man devoted superhuman patience and dedication to the task of bringing the combatants together and holding them there.
Senator Mitchell, now 89, was diagnosed three years ago with acute leukaemia and he continues to receive treatment. But he travelled to Belfast for the events this week, delivering a major address at Queen’s University. He told delegates that he and his wife Heather had come because they wished to say thank you to the people of Northern Ireland. But it is the people of Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and of the Republic, who say thank you to Senator Mitchell – and to all those who, 25 years ago, had the courage to compromise and so make a better future possible for all. The lessons from the two weeks of events remain, of course, highly relevant today.