The genius of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), also known as the Belfast Agreement, was that it achieved more than a compromise. The document is reasonably short and worth reading in full, if for no other reason than you might bump into Lady Sylvia Hermon in the street.
The GFA was both a peace deal and a political one. It helped to put an end to thirty years of violence, known as the Troubles, which began in the late 1960s and lead to the death of some 3,500 people, half of whom were civilians.
