Editorial: A celebration of the 1998 Belfast Agreement in which Gerry Adams of all people scolds unionists

​How lamentable. That in a celebration of the Belfast Agreement Gerry Adams can be helped by the leaders of 1998 to scold unionists.

​Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Mary McAleese, Bertie Ahern, Chris Heaton-Harris, Tony Blair, even – albeit obliquely – Senator George Mitchell all in their own way ordered the DUP back to Stormont, which means overlooking the outrage of an Irish Sea border. Unionists should ignore the damage to the consent principle, described to devastating effect by the late Lord Trimble in a 2021 essay reproduced on these pages yesterday.

London, it is true, has worked to alleviate that border, so it will be less burdensome than it would have been, but even so the mitigated border will come into force later this year, when the original protocol never did (due to the UK extending grace periods unilaterally, an obviously right course of action that nonetheless attracted opprobrium from the great and the good).

How can unionists agree such a thing? How indeed did unionism get into a situation where it seemed it might? The answer is that unionism is so inured to the reality that Sinn Fein can beaver away to undermine NI while unionism always takes the blame that unionists do somersaults to seem agreeable. Unionists will not need Mr Heaton-Harris to tell them today that staying out of the assembly will damage the Union (ie fresh reward for republicans). But how sickening, when grappling with that reality of perpetual placating of SF, to hear Gerry Adams of all people, surrounded by a chorus of implied criticism of the DUP, tell unionists to ‘shake themselves’.

Jim Allister KC always puts it well. America wouldn’t for a second accept outside interference in its own internal trade. ​​​​​​And, Mr Blair, it sure wouldn’t accept what has happened on legacy, to appease terrorists and demonise state forces.