Analysis by\u00a0Paul Kane, Congressional bureau chief, April 15, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement reminds political leaders of the tough process of compromise<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n George Mitchell had spent almost two years leading peace talks with warring parties in Northern Ireland, adopting a strategy of just asking an open-ended question that would allow one side to vent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMostly, it was listening on my part,\u201d the former Senate majority leader recalled. But eventually, when the talks started to go sideways in early 1998, Mitchell had to compel the 10 different parties to move from their positions. So he imposed a deadline that forced action: Good Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had no authority to impose it,\u201d he confided in a 70-minute telephone interview. But he had acquired something intangible through all those patient months of hearing them vent about grievances and murders carried out falsely in the name of their respective Gods. \u201cThey all really trusted me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An outsider asked by the U.S. president, Irish prime minister and British prime minister to lead the talks, Mitchell helped end the sectarian violence that had dominated the region in the previous three decades, when more than 3,500 died in violence attributed to \u201cthe Troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 25 years since, just 155 have died in this type of violence, a success story that President Biden, former president Bill Clinton and many other American officials have flown across the Atlantic to help celebrate this anniversary. In an unexpected twist, Northern Ireland is now a scene of relative stability while the United States finds its democratic institutions under political assault and widespread killingshappen nearly weekly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know better than most how hard democracy can be at times. We in the United States have firsthand experience, how fragile even long-standing democratic institutions can be. You saw what happened on January the 6th in my country,\u201d Biden said Wednesday<\/a> at Ulster University in Belfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Belfast, Biden marks Good Friday accord despite Irish tensions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitchell called the deal a \u201cpolitical compromise\u201d and noted that it \u201cdid not resolve all the issues.\u201d Indeed,\u00a0the regional government has been shut down<\/a>\u00a0since last year over a dispute connected to Brexit, and the\u00a0religious tensions linger<\/a>\u00a0even as the violence has subsided. The anniversary markers this month are attempts to restore Northern Ireland\u2019s upward trajectory as much as to look back on the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitchell, now 89, has been battling leukemia since 2020<\/a> but got medical clearance to fly off on Saturday for Belfast ahead of a conference next week celebrating the anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of office for almost 30 years, he is loath to give advice to today\u2019s political leaders, but he believes that Washington could learn quite a bit from what took place in those Northern Ireland talks and how so many factions sealed a deal that changed that region\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere has to be patience, there has to be a willingness to listen,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cListening is a sign of respect. It says I value you and I value your views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, most members of Congress and presidential candidates are trying to gain attention and levels of fame through cable news appearances and social media pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s all shouting,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s exactly how Northern Ireland\u2019s leaders behaved in January 1995 when President Clinton asked Mitchell, who had just retired from the Senate representing Maine, to take up a part-time mission of setting up a trade meeting in Northern Ireland a little later that spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Protestant majority had several factions, including paramilitary units that carried out attacks in Catholic neighborhoods, particularly those with suspected large concentrations of soldiers in the separatist Irish Republican Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trade conference went well enough that Clinton coaxed Mitchell into taking on a more direct role, as his envoy to the region. \u201cWell, they like you over there, I\u2019d like you to continue,\u201d the president told him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FAQ: What is the Good Friday Agreement?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n