Many Daily Record readers will be old enough to remember when bombings in Northern Ireland were a regular feature on nightly news bulletins.
The Troubles, as they were known, were responsible for more than 3700 deaths and tens of thousands of injuries from sectarian violence.
It was a grim time and seemed it would never end. But it did.
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), signed 25 years ago, brought peace to Northern Ireland which for so long seemed unthinkable.
The wisdom and forbearance of key figures on both sides of the political divide created the opportunity for the violence to stop.
It was seized by both hands and the province is now a place people want to visit for all the right reasons.
But times change and tensions have increased recently, exacerbated by a hard Tory Brexit that showed a callous disregard for the welfare of the people of Northern Ireland and the fragile peace they enjoy.
The stalemate at Stormont, where the DUP have pulled out of power-sharing with Sinn Fein, is unsustainable.
Northern Ireland needs politicians to do their jobs and not sit on the side lines whingeing.
Leading political figures who helped bring about peace, such as Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, now argue that the agreement should be reviewed to help resolve the impasse.
Whether the GFA is amended remains to be seen but its key principles must endure.
Hundreds of lives have been saved and communities have been transformed thanks to the agreement signed 25 years ago.
There can be no going back to the bad old days.
Voucher failure
Vouchers for energy – issued during the chill of a Scottish winter – would have been a meagre help for most.
But for those on prepayment meters, who are often the poorest in society, they would mean the difference between turning on the heating for a few hours or simply freezing.
It is unthinkable that as many as 270,000 vouchers went unredeemed because people couldn’t be bothered to cash them in.
We know of many who simply didn’t get a voucher, didn’t know they were entitled to them or got vouchers in the wrong names.
The UK Government has had months to sort this mess out yet the situation seems to have got worse.
Yet again struggling families have been failed by the Tories.
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