A Very Long Good Friday

After 25 years, it is time to tell the truth about the Northern Irish peace process

It is 25 years since the Good Friday - or Belfast! - agreement was signed and, boy, that ages some of us. You are, I suppose, never quite so fully alive as when you are an undergraduate and impressions made then last a very, very long time indeed. It is why Tony Blair remains the pre-eminent political figure for those of us who were 20 or so years old when he became leader of the Labour party and why the Northern Irish peace process was one of the two defining stories for those of us who spent those years on the island of Ireland. (The other, at least in the south, was the Republic becoming rich and deservedly-hopeful for the first time in its history.)

The peace process was a mighty, if imperfect, thing. It was built on the proposition winning was only possible if everyone lost. Those defeats were not divided equally and some stung more than others, in part because certain truths were so crushing - and yet also so sensitive - they had to be suppressed, lest uttering them damage anyon…