Belfast Agreement 20 years on: a time to take stock
Caroline Magennis, co-organiser of an academic conference marking the anniversary, on the personal impact of the peace process and the range of topics to be addressed
Then taoiseach Bertie Ahern, US senator George Mitchell and British prime minister Tony Blair on April 10th, 1998, after they signed the Belfast Agreement. Photograph: Dan Chung/AFP/Getty Images
It is a truism to stay that the accord of 1998, known as the Good Friday or the Belfast Agreement, changed the political and social landscape of Northern Ireland. At the time of writing, the first strand (the Assembly and Executive) is under threat due to the stalemate between Sinn Féin and the DUP and the prospect of Direct Rule hangs heavy over negotiations.
It is evident from recent discourse around Brexit and Ireland that many commentators and politicians in Westminster are unfamiliar with the basic tenets of the agreement. The agreement is often used as a proxy to refer to issues in contemporary Northern Irish society or with politicians, in place of a genuine engagement with the ideas that were set out in 1998. As negotiations proceed, the “Irish Question” and the protections of the agreement are more of a stumbling block to Brexit than those who cast their vote last May might have imagined.