The Belfast Agreement: a historic deal is under threat
Two decades after it was signed, the agreement that underpins the peace looks vulnerable
The determination of Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair, allied to the patience of Senator George Mitchell, pulled enough people over the line to make the Belfast Agreement possible 20 years ago. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell/Reuters
The 20th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement is being overshadowed by the fact that the institutions established under its auspices have been in abeyance for over a year and there are serious doubts about whether they will ever be restored.
It would be a profound tragedy if the 1998 agreement, the culmination of decades of Irish-British diplomacy and negotiations with all the relevant parties, was to go the way of the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973. This cannot be allowed to happen as the consequences are too awful to contemplate. The Belfast Agreement has underpinned the peace and there is a risk that without it violence could creep back.