Democratic Unionist Party claims that the Belfast Agreement has been superseded by the St Andrews accord are simply window-dressing, a senior nationalist claimed today.
As Northern Ireland prepared to mark the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday deal, SDLP leader Mark Durkan dismissed DUP claims that it had been superseded by the 2006 St Andrews Agreement.
The Foyle MP said: "Those kind of comments are a cross between a fig leaf and a figment of DUP imaginations.
"The St Andrews Agreement was the sugar for the medicine provided by the Good Friday agreement.
"Sure there were changes in St Andrews but rather than change the architecture of the Good Friday agreement, what we have seen is the DUP and Sinn Fein alter some of the fittings and fixtures — changes the DUP may well end up regretting."
The Rev Ian Paisley's DUP opposed the Belfast Agreement when it was forged and in the subsequent referendum which 71.2 per cent of people in Northern Ireland backed.
But the overall result masked deep divisions within unionism and while the DUP, which was the second largest unionist party in 1998, took its two ministries in the first power-sharing executive at Stormont after the Belfast Agreement, it refused to take part in cabinet meetings.
In 2002, the executive collapsed over allegations that republicans were operating a spy ring at Stormont and a year later the DUP became the largest party in the Assembly in the 2003 elections. It was later claimed the spy ring allegation was a creation of the British secret service, aided by a spy inside Sinn Fein itself, Denis Donaldson.
It was almost four years before another power-sharing executive would be formed, with the DUP and Sinn Fein at the helm. That took place in May last year after the IRA stood down its units, completed its arms decommissioning process, the St Andrews Agreement was forged in 2006 and Sinn Fein signed up to participating in policing.
In return, the DUP promised to share power. Mr Durkan, who was one of the SDLP's senior negotiators 10 years ago, claimed today: "The Good Friday Agreement has stood the test of time.
"At the time we said it provided for partnership and co-operation, not just between nationalist and unionist but for those who voted 'Yes' in the referendum and those who voted 'No', and that is how things have turned out."
PA