Mr. Tim O'Connor:

Very much so. It is a point that I have been making out. I am just praising Senator McGreehan because it is a point that I have been making out in conversations. I was in London a couple of weeks ago at a meeting and I was just making that very point that this was a big deal. This is the will of the people. This is a referendum. Big changes were made formally that we cannot actually pull back, and we made them. As I said, Articles 2 and 3 were a fundamental doctrinal change by the South. It changed our Constitution. Senator McGreehan is just after articulating that. When I hear people today saying that they have moved on and do not support the Good Friday Agreement, I say this is a formal sovereign will of the people. That was a very important point the Senator made that I appreciated.

The maturity question is a more difficult one. There are checks and balances built into the architecture of the Good Friday Agreement on a basis that those are the safeguards that are given to both sides in a conflicted, contested situation. Safeguards have to be given to both sides in terms of how implementation is going to proceed. A safeguard is ultimately a protection, but also, therefore, a safeguard ultimately also potentially becomes a veto. I am not sure how you can construct a fundamental safeguard without it also becoming a veto. It is built into the architecture we have. If I am speaking as a citizen and an optimist, I would always hope and believe that a way can be found to work through the issues, whatever they are, and a way can be found with the institutions.

This goes back to why Brexit has been such an issue. Our ambassador in London, Adrian O’Neill, came up with a concept of a disturbance in the force, which is a Star Wars reference. Brexit has been a huge disturbance in the positive force of the Good Friday Agreement. It has brought back into play the whole question of the sovereignty of Northern Ireland and if it is British or Irish. All of those questions are back in play when we had kind of calmed them down and put them into a very careful, delicate space. We put a ribbon on them, as it were, and just left them there, and it was fine then. Everybody could get on then. Now, however, Brexit has come along and has torn all that up. The debate is back on.