Belfast Agreement @ 25: Unionists should claim the rise in the number of people identifying as Northern Irish as an achievement, writes David Montgomery

That commitment set an example to his closest allies who – sometimes in idiosyncratic ways – relentlessly pushed the peace process forward. Ulster Secretary Mo Mowlam was the antithesis of what straight-laced Ulster Protestants, David Trimble included, considered dignified womanhood. Mo swore and drank like a trooper with an insatiable appetite for over indulgence in other departments, too.

But her rough ways played well to the loyalist paramilitaries and her physical courage faced down all comers. Mo’s security detail was appalled by her risk taking. Once she and I lunched at Deanes restaurant in Howard Street, Belfast. Her bodyguards pointed to a table in the corner hidden from street view. Instead Mo insisted on a floor to ceiling window facing the street and cheerily waved to startled passers-by throughout the meal.

Tony Blair’s chief of staff Jonathan Powell set his own principles aside to deal with those with blood on their hands in many clandestine meetings. He would fly back to London feeling tainted by the experience but he pressed on.

The relationship between David Trimble and Tony Blair was the most remarkable of all. Many in Labour considered Ulster Prods and unionists to be dirty words – oppressive tyrants and bigots. The feeling of extreme suspicion and disdain was amply reciprocated. Blair personally changed that at the final Labour Party conference before his landslide 1997 election victory.

Trimble was the first unionist leader to attend a Labour conference and Blair’s warmth towards him was taken up by Shadow frontbenchers. It was probably the first and only time that a political leader impressed his peers by refusing to dine with them, preferring instead to read a history book at a solitary table in the Grand Hotel in Blackpool.

Blair grew to respect Trimble’s intellect and scholarly approach that played well with Blair’s legalistic attention to detail and also their shared openness to argument. Later the bond was even closer as the two men supported each other in similar private challenges.

However, none of that mattered on the morning of April 10, 1998. Trimble was in a solitary battle with himself as to what would best protect the heritage he passionately represented. The call from Jonathan Powell came when my family and I were about to board a flight from Gatwick to Rome. He did not introduce himself but merely said: “You have to speak to him. He will not move.” Powell attempted to pass the phone to Trimble, but it was John Taylor, Ulster Unionist deputy leader and now Lord Kilclooney, who came on the line. “There is no point you or anyone else speaking to him,” he said. “It is now up to David, him alone.”

In response I trotted out the sermon that Ulster Unionists and the community they represented were in danger of being seen as pariahs. Pointless or not, I abandoned my family to Rome and scrambled to find a flight to Belfast. I was at the ticket desk negotiating a seat when the phone rang again less than an hour later with news of Trimble’s momentous decision.

I like to think that David Trimble saw a different and inclusive Northern Ireland 25 years on, although on the day the leaders were primarily striving for peace. Apart from the obvious greater prosperity for many, and despite all the imperfections, there is a fundamental shift in allegiances.

A senior politician from Dublin, speaking last week, was bold enough to remark that many on both sides of the community were developing a sense of Northern Irish identity. That is the reality that unionists should seize on to as it is an achievement they can and should rightly claim as theirs.

To some extent that should also allay fears of those who see a constant creep of nationalism in the quarter century since the Good Friday Agreement. The unique quality of Northern Ireland, and the pride of those increasing numbers who identify with it, includes the wider acceptance of British, Protestant, Unionist and Orange heritage guaranteeing it a permanent and growing respect.

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• David Montgomery is executive chairman of Nationalworld, owner of the News Letter