I think the only way to really understand why the Good Friday agreement is important is to visit Belfast. You need to walk through the neighborhoods in order to see the gates, the Peace Walls, the murales and the signs expressing the grief and pain of two communities who have hated each other up to the point of killing each other, and still live just a few meters apart.
The whole city felt to me like a wounded animal that has only just stopped bleeding, and not it's begging for some time for its scars to heal.
When I was in school in mainland UK IRA bomb threats were a thing, the Manchester bombings still live large in my memory.
Even from a distance the importance of the peace brokered in Ireland is tangible, I feel.
What the royals and ruling classes did to Ireland seems as bad as anything they did elsewhere in the 'Empire'. It mightn't be logical, but all that history can't be ignored. The memories of oppression live long.
The whole city felt to me like a wounded animal that has only just stopped bleeding, and not it's begging for some time for its scars to heal.