British Cabinet documents have shed new light on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and UK prime minister Tony Blair’s role in the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were among those lauded for their roles in bringing about the peace accord in 1998 after years of The Troubles.
Documents on Anglo-Irish relations from Mr Blair’s first few weeks in office, following New Labour’s surge to victory in May 1997, show a meeting between the two men signalled an intent to bring peace.
A briefing note from Robin Cook, then foreign secretary, to Mr Blair said: “Your meeting with the Taoiseach on July 3 was inevitably dominated by discussion of Northern Ireland.
“But there was agreement in principle to developing the wider relationship.”
Mr Cook acknowledged that a nationalist government would likely be “less instinctively committed to improving” the relationship between Ireland and the UK.
But he said having Mr Ahern as the Fianna Fáil party leader gave genuine cause for optimism.
“Ahern is a pragmatist,” Mr Cook wrote.
“He has spoken privately to our Ambassador and in public of the possibility of developing a new era in UK/Irish relations.
“Better so-called ‘East/West’ relations have intrinsic value and will improve the climate for our exchanges with the Irish over Northern Ireland.”
The Good Friday Agreement, also referred to as the Belfast Agreement, set the way for peaceful power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
