What about the Good Friday Agreement?

Alex Kane wrote:

"The GFA which was endorsed by 71% in 1998 exists almost in name only today."

Jon Tonge said:

"No. It's a model that I'm not convinced will ever fully work. I don't see Northern Ireland ever being truly stable. Since the Good Friday Agreement power-sharing hasn't been running 40% of the time. Stormont has never operated as a fully functioning joined-up government. The two big parties' constitutional aspirations are just too different."

Gerry Adams said in 1999:

"The Agreement is not a peace settlement , nor does it purport to be one ... During the talks we set ourselves to the task of weakening the British link while defending the right of the Irish people to national self-determination. It is in this context that we constantly measure the gains and losses contained in the Good Friday Agreement. The Agreement ... marks the beginning of a transitional period towards Irish unification."

Ed Moloney wrote:

"It has taken how long? Several months at least but finally a journalist covering the Brexit story, in this case John Campbell of the BBC, has gone to the trouble to actually read the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) to check whether Leo Varadkar is correct in stating that a hard Border would offend the GFA. 

And his conclusion, as readers of thebrokenelbow.com will know full well, is that GFA says nothing – nada – about the nature of the Border, ‘hard’, ‘soft’ or middling and all those politicians, from Varadkar to Mary Lou have either been pulling the wool over our eyes or have themselves failed to complete the simplest of due diligence. 

As for the hacks, it takes about 30 minutes to read the GFA so one can readily understand why so many journalists have failed to read the document at the heart of this controversy. I mean, that’s half an hour that could be better spent fiddling one’s expenses."