Between May 2022 and March 2023, the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement met figures who had played a key part in formulating the 1998 Belfast Agreement, more commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement from when it was signed on Good Friday in 1998.
In its engagement with these architects of the agreement, the committee sought to understand how the agreement was reached and its implementation, as well as hearing personal perspectives from the political actors, diplomats and civil servants involved with making the Good Friday Agreement a reality.
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George Mitchell | 27 October 2022
"I told the delegates that I did not come with an American plan. There was no external plan. If an agreement could be reached, and I said I believed this was possible, it would have to be their agreement. It had to be the agreement of the people who were going to be affected by it and live under it."
Taking steps to agreement
Some collective ambiguity was a necessary part of the coinage for the process in 1998 but this was supposed to be supplemented by a growing collective certainty which should have stemmed from the implementation of its provisions and faithful adherence to its precepts.
Mark Durkan
Although dealing with them was very frustrating and although they were often very negative, often for show, it was also courageous to take the risk. There is no courage in refusing to engage in negotiations; that is easily done. There is a courage in entering into negotiations and a lot of people in politics and beyond - including Fr. Alec Reid, for example, if we go back far enough, and many others - had a finger in pushing the people who could reach an agreement into actually doing so.
Sir John Major
The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition brought skills to the negotiations such as leadership, strategy, managing complexity, policy, drafting, active listening, which is a very underrated skill, relationship building, dialogue facilitation, negotiation and managing competing interests.
Bronagh Hinds
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Lord Alderdice | 6 October 2022
"He made the point to them that what the Border tells us is that the people who live on the island cannot agree how to share it, so we have to get agreement on how to share it."
Finding agreement
That morning, as David Andrews and I made our way up from the Stormont House accommodation provided for us during the talks, we heard Tony Blair's memorable soundbite, "I feel the hand of history upon our shoulder", on the radio. We joked darkly that it could equally be the boot of history, such was our uncertainty about what was going to happen.
Liz O'Donnell
George Mitchell called us all together on 25 March for a pep talk for the delegates. All of us crowded into a room bigger than this and what he said went something like this: "I have been with you now for three years. It's been marvellous. I have listened to your stories. They are wonderful stories and I'm sure you have more of them, as well." He said: "In the meantime, a son has been born to me in New York and I would like to see him before he goes to college, so I am declaring a deadline by which our discussions must draw to an end and decisions be reached." There was a sharp collective intake of breath.
Tim O'Connor
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Rory Montgomery | 2 June 2022
"Despite the fact it was Good Friday, somebody had laid hands on a few bottles of champagne so this was drunk with great excitement at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. We then heard the deal was not finished at all. There was exhaustion, incipient hangover and general despair."
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Liz O'Donnell | 16 February 2023
"There were tears of fatigue and hugs of relief all around. We spilled out to brief the media waiting outside in the mud and in portacabins. It was lashing rain with freezing wind. I remember seeing John Hume, who was, more than anyone else, the intellectual architect of all of this, standing in the rain, looking up to the skies while giving his press conference."
Reconciling
Reconciliation requires the creation of a shared perception and shared achievements that become a basis for a shared allegiance. Political leaders in Northern Ireland need to work towards shared achievements, of which all of them can be proud, and that become part of a new shared historic memory, gradually replacing the divisive memories of the past.
John Bruton
Overall, we can take pride in the fact we did something that continues to matter. The question is whether we can finish the job we started, because we still have some road to travel.
Lord Empey
On the evening the agreement was reached, I commented on and commended the men and women who negotiated and signed the agreement. In the most difficult and dangerous of circumstances, they acted with courage, strength and vision. However, I also said that evening that it would take other leaders in the future to safeguard and extend their work.
George Mitchell
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Bertie Ahern | 20 October 2022
"That means focusing on continuing its work, building and strengthening its institutions, redoubling our efforts on reconciliation and mobilising the support of new generations around its promise. Above all, I suggest we must continue the focus on the agreement’s core value - the respect for, and accommodation of, difference."
The work of the Committee
The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement plays a pivotal role in informing debate on key areas of mutual interest in North-South co-operation.