Green and orange
There are many players who have contributed to the extraordinary sight of Dr Paisley and Gerry Adams coming to an agreement yesterday. There is no doubt that Tony Blair deserves approbation for his role, as does the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern. None of this would have been achieved without the support of successive Irish governments.
Ireland in the last twenty years has changed so dramatically, and is now so prosperous, that the situation in Northern Ireland ceased to become a romantic quest for unification, but a terrible embarrassment. Equally Americans, after 9/11, began to look more critically at the terrorist links of Sinn Fein/IRA.
Tony Blair will want to include this achievement in his legacy, which he is entitled to do. However we should just remember that all of this was started by John Major, at a time of bombings and real personal danger. It took political courage to press on, when the actions of the IRA continued to fortify the sceptics.
For Tony Blair, and the Labour Party, as John Major discovered, this magnificent breakthrough will not be recognised in the votes of the British electorate.