Presidential pleas, marathon talks and crisis after crisis: How the Good Friday Agreement was signed against all odds

Sign up for View email from Westminster for expert analytics straight to your inboxReceive our free email View from WestminsterPlease enter a valid email addressPlease enter a valid email addressI would like to receive emails about offers, events and updates day of The Independent. Read our privacy notice{{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}An error has occurred. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

That was Tony Blair's finest hour. On Good Friday 1998, he secured a historic deal that brought peace to Northern Ireland after three decades of sectarian violence.

Of course, the former Prime Minister did not act alone. The Good Friday Agreement, which has become a model studied by peacemakers around the world, required enormous commitment and sacrifice from many others – including Unionist and Republican politicians in Northern Ireland; Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA and the Irish government. The community has played an important role, whether it's churches and clerics in a country divided between Protestants and Catholics or groups such as the Women of Peace.

An unexpected agreement has was made possible by a combination of circumstances and people. Both the IRA and the British Army had come to the same point, recognizing a stalemate: while they could both prolong a bloody conflict that had claimed over 3,500 lives, neither could win militarily.

But the deal wouldn't have happened without Blair leading the way and becoming the first incoming prime minister since Gladstone to make Northern Ireland a top priority. Devoting so much time and energy was perhaps surprising for a leader whose other main achievement was winning three elections. There was no vote for him in the province, when failure would mean a detrimental start to his premiership.

“It was a very personal triumph,” recalls now one of Blair's Cabinet allies. "Tony engineered it, drove it and ultimately brokered a deal that transformed Northern Ireland and ended armed conflict. It doesn't get much bigger than that."

Blair loved the challenge. Mo Mowlam, his Northern Ireland secretary, who was instrumental in getting Sinn Fein to join but thus lost the trust of Unionists, said Blair had a "Jesus complex". But a former Blair aide told me that his optimism and confidence that could solve intractable problems "was a weakness for Iraq but a strength for Northern Ireland".

Allies of Blair admit that his conservative predecessor, John Major, deserves more credit than history has given him. In 1993, the Provisional IRA sent him a striking message: “The conflict is over but we need your advice to put an end to it. We wish to have a ceasefire without notice in order to hold a dialogue leading to peace. »