The day peace was forged brought a promise of redemption for us all. Clearly aware of the timing, those involved in the talks pushed beyond the
midnight hour to a conclusion on 10 April 1998. It was a Good Friday, in every
sense of the name.
The outcome was officially entitled ‘The
Agreement,’ yet we hailed it as the Good Friday Agreement, basking in that
‘feel good’ designation and remarking on the contrast with the blood-soaked
days that preceded it – Bloody Friday, Bloody Sunday and more from a lengthy calendar
of horror.
So we breathed a collective sigh of relief as
dawn broke and cheered again when the Good Friday Agreement was sealed by
popular vote throughout the island. However, we wavered when it was delivered
for action because, by then, we had begun to forget what it was called.
The Irish Times began designating it the
Belfast Agreement, as if its intrinsic value was vested in a place. This
suggested that if you simply changed venue, you could change the outcome. But
even the subsequent St Andrews Agreement failed to fire the popular imagination.
It was mere housekeeping with the reminder that the Good Friday Agreement was still
the ‘only show in town’.
The ‘Belfast Agreement’ certainly had
its proponents and foremost among them were the opponents, uncomfortable with
the positive connotations of a Good Friday Agreement.
The ‘Belfast Agreement’ was also upheld by
pedantic commentators, insisting that similar accords are called after the
place in which they are agreed – Treaty of Versailles etc. Yet
what we had was not ‘site specific’ to Belfast, another treaty to be added to a
catalogue of place-name accords. It was more than an armistice between
belligerents or even a treaty between sovereign powers.
It was endorsed by the Irish, British
and American governments, by the European Union and all its constituent members, as well as by other governments,
religious leaders and people of goodwill throughout the entire world. However, our
Good Friday Agreement was also an unprecedented accord between all the people
of Ireland to forge a better future for all of us and to do this in peace. Together
we hailed it as a new model of peace-making.
So most of us persisted doggedly with the
Good Friday Agreement, even against the guiles of media style guides. In one memorable
early purge, the Irish Times – ever- vigilant enforcer of the geographical designation
– pursued it all the way into a report on the Presbyterian General Assembly with one naysayer remarking that the “only Belfast Agreement” he recognised, “was
won for us on the cross by our Saviour”!
Fifteen years on, vigilance is still needed
against those who would unpick what was won for us at the dawn of that Good
Friday. Its promise is still denied by dissidents, including those who by
stealth diminish the name we bestowed on the Agreement in our first
acclamation.
They came after the name; let’s ensure they
don’t succeed in coming after the terms.
