Seamus Heaney Good Friday Agreement

In 1977, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 1976 Peace Prize to Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams, the peace people of Northern Ireland. Since then, it has been said that the time has not come. Once again, we heard that our decision might be premature, that a lasting peace was still a long way off. The argument is easy to understand and nothing could have pleased us more than to be able to say today that peace was safe. But in the context of these awards, as for others, the committee kept in mind Nobel`s clear intention that the award reflect current issues and advance the cause of peace. We know that a peace process can be long and difficult and can often be backwards. In these processes, it is important to focus on the progress that may have been made against adversity and on those who are brave enough to stand for a good cause. Reversing does not mean that their efforts have been in vain. They may have laid the groundwork for a new effort at the next opportunity. That`s how you build peace, slowly, like drilling hardwood, as Max Weber said. Work on the path is as important as the final touch.

And if you draw attention to the current phase, you may be able to contribute to further progress. In addition to leadership, we need institutional guarantees, said Sissela Bok. The Good Friday Agreement offers institutional guarantees. It is not a material agreement and should not be an agreement. The Unionists are still unionists and nationalists. What they have acquired are institutions for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. We all know that there are still big problems and that the new constitutional basis for the peaceful resolution of conflicts is fragile. Again this fall, we have seen terrorist attacks that have claimed several lives.

But it seems that these are isolated cases and that they have only helped to reinforce the general requirement for construction on the basis of peaceful solutions defined in the Good Friday Agreement. The IRA ceasefire, an important condition for progress on the road to peace, remains in force. So while we are aware that things can change quickly in our uncertain world, the situation has been different since Good Friday this year. The vicious circle of violence has been broken. The peace process has set up its own dynamics, which makes it unlikely that we will return to previous conditions of terror, although we must be prepared for minor setbacks in the process. The same goes for the title of the play by Andy Pollak, a journalist who was one of the leaders of the „yes“ campaign in the 1998 referendum. His article is entitled I Am a Disillusioned Disciple of the Belfast Agreement. His biggest concern is that if Sinn Féin has made its way to a border poll, which is a „50 percent plus one vote for a (dis) united Ireland . . .

This is exactly what will lead us to the repetition of the old bloody conflict. No other political construction has a realistic chance of obtaining the approval of the two communities in Northern Ireland. No other institutional agreement is the best catalyst to promote reconciliation in Northern Ireland. And no other solution corresponds to the vision and principles of the Good Friday Agreement, which must remain the model of political progress. My date book of April 10, 1998 only shows the flight number and arrival time of a childhood friend who is on a bird-watching trip to the Gulf Coast of Alabama over easter weekend. I have not seen the historic peace agreement. However, in the coming days and weeks, I wrote newspaper and magazine articles about the agreement, which I included in a record of stories on paper about Ireland that I had kept since the 1980s.