ONE of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement has said any future vote on the unification of Ireland must learn from the 2014 Scottish indyref by answering “all of the issues comprehensively” before it takes place.
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern was one of the signatories of the agreement which ended the 30-year conflict of the Troubles, which will mark its 25th anniversary tomorrow.
The landmark 1998 deal included a mechanism for Irish unity – a majority vote in a border poll – and factors such as a rising Catholic population in Northern Ireland and increased prosperity in the Republic are believed to have brought that prospect closer.
Speaking at an event held at the Brexit Institute in Dublin last week, Ahern said he “would love” to see a united Ireland.
But he added: “After looking at what happened in Brexit and after looking what happened in the Scottish referendum, any referendum that doesn’t comprehensively and in great detail answer and deal with all of the issues will not pass in my view.
“Therefore there is a huge amount of work that has to take place on what a new Ireland would look like – how we would integrate all our various administrative institutions? Forget money for a minute, that’s another issue, how would you actually do it, how would it function?
“Would Northern Ireland still have an assembly of its own, would people be elected to Northern Ireland Assembly, would they be elected to Dáil Éireann?
“How would we integrate our police forces, how would we integrate our various departments?”
Ahern said he believed this was possible to achieve but the necessary work – such as academic research – had only just commenced.
He added: “I think it is fair to say maybe the first vote will be within the decade, I think that is reasonable, but if the preparatory work isn’t done there is no point in having that referendum.”
Ahern was one of four signatories on the Good Friday Agreement, alongside then prime minister Tony Blair, Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam and Irish foreign affairs minister David Andrews.
Ahern said peace had been achieved but pointed to times when Stormont had been suspended over the years, including the current situation where powersharing in Stormont remains collapsed amid post-Brexit tensions.
“It is the politicians that has let us down – we have had numerous difficulties,” he said.
He went on to describe Brexit as the “biggest mistake ever made by the British Government and the British people in 1000 years”, before adding: “That’s just me tongue in cheek.”
He said: “It caused us endless problems as everybody knows.
“So we are where we are now and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, the politicians will deal with their outstanding issues.”
As part of the commemorations, US President Joe Biden will arrive in Belfast on Tuesday to take part in a series of engagements, including a formal meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
However the anniversary has been marred by warnings from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) of the potential of dissident republicans launching attacks on police officers in Londonderry on Easter Monday.
MI5 recently raised the terrorism threat in Northern Ireland level to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.
And a major policing operation costing around £7 million and backed up by around 300 officers travelling from other parts of the UK will take place.
Speaking ahead of the anniversary, Sunak said “making good” on the pledge of a “better future” for the nation is first and foremost on his mind.
The Prime Minister will address the “Agreement 25” conference at Queen’s University on Wednesday before hosting a gala dinner.
Biden will leave Northern Ireland on Wednesday for the Republic, where he will visit Dublin, County Louth and County Mayo.
More than 3500 people were killed during the Troubles and on Friday family members of victims gathered on the beach at Killough in Co Down to watch the sun rise to mark the anniversary of the historic peace deal.
Among them was Paddy McKenna Gallagher, whose father Peter was shot as he went to work in 1993 by the UDA. He was 13 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
He said: “I remember that feeling of hope that was everywhere at the time.
“There was that feeling that we young people were the future, that we had a much brighter future than our parents and the people who had lived throughout all of the Troubles.
“That has faded in terms of young people’s involvement in how we move forward, but it has been a success because people are not being murdered on the streets in the levels that they were.”
