Bertie Ahern on Good Friday Agreement: ‘We said we’d give it a few years, it took over our lives’

The two young leaders, Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair, both came to power in 1997, writes Daniel McConnell.

Within a year, the pair had steered the troubled province of Ulster to a tentative peace agreement which is now 20 years old.

The success and longevity of the Good Friday Agreement is a testament to the sheer commitment the two leaders, who got on extremely well, but also to crucial role played by a tough if likeable American.

Ahern and Blair had in opposition laid the foundation work for what would become a decade’s odyssey for them both.

“Tony Blair and I were working in opposition throughout 1995 and 1996. We met in Westminster, we met in the Dáil in Dublin, we met in the Gresham Hotel. We were working out what we would do if we were elected. We had a strategy worked out. But we really stepped that up when the ceasefire broke down in February 1996, so we had a long run in,” Ahern told the Irish Examiner in an interview.

Ahern says they agreed that he would work on bringing Sinn Féin and the SDLP along, while Blair and his team would work on the unionists, who were sceptical to say the least.

Blair’s team felt Ahern was in some ways a messenger for Gerry Adams.

Ahern was “basically putting the Sinn Féin line most of the time” recalls Alastair Campbell, who was Blair’s communications adviser and chief confidante.

Ahern makes clear the two men made a pact to commit to attempting to seek out peace in Northern Ireland.

“We said and signed up together in opposition that if we got in we would give it a few years. We didn’t think we were going to give it ten years. It took over our lives, it took over mine anyway.

“We said we’d give it two years and we will get dug into it and do everything we can,” says Ahern.

“We would start with peace and then move into reconciliation and see if we can get there. The fact we worked together and got on so well and we came together on the big issues.”

Ahern says that in the run up to the talks in Stormont, every side had problems with what was proposed.

First of all, the Unionists were not happy on the North South element of it. Sinn Féin wanted resolution on the prisoners, the SDLP wanted reform of policing.

“There was a whole lot of big ticket items, and of course, there was decommissioning and the change of the criminal justice system and all of that. When you look at it now, they were huge items in their own right,” Ahern says.

“But what we were trying to do was to nail down as much of it in the agreement and then move to have it ratified by the people in May 1998. Once that happened we had the Patton Commission set up within weeks.”

He also recalls a sense of apprehension on arriving in Belfast on Holy Week, when Blair famously declared “the hand of history” was on their shoulders.

“We were nervous. The Belfast Telegraph poll the weekend before showed that just 5% of people felt we would get a deal so there wasn’t anyone not feeling the pressure. I felt we had been at this for seven months, daily contact, every weekend ringing people, all the parties, and we said let’s give it one big push. Make it as inclusive as we can. If we fail, we fail but at least give it a really good go,” Ahern says.

The former taoiseach says the role of US Senator George Mitchell as chairman was crucial.

“It was hugely important we had an outside influence on the process, hugely important. The fact he was number three or four in the Clinton administration, in American politics, the fact he was Clinton’s man, helped to keep the pressure on and an order on things,” he says.

“When he set Holy Thursday as the deadline, I mean if he was not a man of considerable standing, people would have dismissed it but they couldn’t. It was a real deadline and nobody wanted to see him go. But it also helped that he was a nice man, he could be tough, but he was a very friendly sort of guy,” Ahern adds.

Famed for his negotiation skills, Ahern during the talks became the target of considerable unionist abuse.

“It was tough and you had to take a lot of abuse. But that was it. I never took it personal and it was a bit critical of Dublin and Dublin governments, high on rhetoric. I never took it personal but there was hard criticism,” he says.

One of the most memorable aspects of the agreement was that at the height of the negotiations, Ahern’s mother Julia died.

“It was unfortunate timing, with my mum dying, People always asked me how did I do it, but we had no option. There was the deadline. I was up and down like a yo-yo, but it just had to be done.

“The previous weekend I meant to get into her but I was meant to get back from England and didn’t get back in time and I didn’t get in to see her, but that is life,” he says.

Ahern says the current impasse is unfortunate but can be overcome. All it needs, he says, is a collective effort of the parties and the two governments, another big push to get it back up and running.

He is scathing, though, of the lack of engagement from Theresa May’s Tory government.

“Yes, they are aloof and they are more aloof then they have ever been. They need a bit of pulling from the Irish Government. I suppose Theresa May is so preoccupied by the Brexit thing but she has to realise that Northern Ireland is part of the Brexit thing. But I would like to see them far more engaged, the blame is with them more than with the Irish Government,” he says.

I conclude by asking him is he proud of what was achieved.

“Obviously it is something I am proud of and the more it is implemented I’d be prouder,” he says firmly.

Undoubtedly his finest hour as taoiseach, this week 20 years ago was one where Ireland was changed forever, for the better.