Editorial: Unionists have already made big compromises, back in 1998 and now

​A former prime minister of the UK and United States president are in Belfast for the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement. There were a number of events over the weekend, and there will be three days of engagements at Queen’s University, starting today.

Meanwhile, the date is being marked in other ways and in other outlets, such as our series of essays, which will continue until the end of the month. Today we publish an essay by the late David Trimble that was written the year before he died for a book, ‘The Idea of the Union,’ in which a number of authors, including the editor of this newspaper, wrote chapters explaining why they thought Northern Ireland was best placed in the UK. The book got few reviews or attention, in contrast to the wide publicity that is often given to events or books that push a ‘New Ireland’.

Lord Trimble’s blunt admission of the concessions that unionists made to support his deal makes poignant reading, both in light of his death last year and as a reminder of the difficult choices that were made in 1998. We still think he made the right call, even though the Belfast Agreement has panned out in unsatisfactory ways, primarily because Sinn Fein is now politically emboldened – both by the knowledge that it must always hold power and by the rise in its vote, which is because many nationalists have rewarded it for the IRA’s move away from violence. Ironically, a vote that rewards a move from terror can seem to be a retrospective endorsement of such.

Bertie Ahern has chided the DUP for failing to compromise. Mr Ahern is as close to a friend as unionists are likely to find in Dublin, so any criticism of his analysis is tempered with respect for his record. But unionists have compromised massively both in 1998 and in recent years. A full throated border in the Irish Sea is not something they can endorse.