It is necessary to step back, metaphorically, viewing the sweep of history at a distance in order to understand the immensity of what has been wrought with Friday's vote on the Belfast Agreement. Ireland has been redefined, the Taoiseach says. It is a simple statement; but of the most profound implication. The two great political cultures of nationalism and unionism have committed themselves to a new accommodation with each other and that commitment has been solemnised by the votes of a majority of both traditions. Any pretext for "armed struggle" is swept away. Any ambition for one racial group to impose its dominance upon the other has been invalidated.
Ireland is being made anew, as if the Fates or the divine arbiter had at last decided to take pity on a country long scarred and driven by violence and hate. We have witnessed a commitment to compromise by Irishmen and women of all traditions and denominations. It marks the end of a period - stretching over centuries - in which relationships have been defined by mistrust and aggression and by staking out local hegemony or dominance. In its place there is now a commitment to an agreed sharing which many believed could never become reality, much less that it would happen in their own lifetimes. In this State, the people have voted overwhelmingly to replace an inherently threatening territorial claim with a simple aspiration, grounded on the principle of consent. Truly seismic changes have been taking place.
The scale of the new commitment has to be recognised. In the Republic, notwithstanding a low turnout, more than 94 per cent of the votes cast endorsed the agreement and supported the concomitant constitutional changes which are required. In Northern Ireland more than 71 per cent of the votes cast were in avour, representing virtual unanimity among nationalists and a clear majority among unionists. It is true, a sizeable minority of the unionist community has rejected the agreement. And the electoral implications of that opposition are undeniably serious for Mr Trimble and his supporters in determining their strategy for the Assembly elections on June 25th.
Yet the significance of the shift in mainstream unionist thinking and the scale of Mr Trimble's achievement can hardly be overstated. It is certain that neither rationality nor the popular will is going to reconcile Dr Paisley and his fellow-extremists to the new order. But there will surely be a great many who voted No on Friday who will respect the democratic decision of their own community and of the population as a whole and who will be willing to give the new arrangements a chance. There is every reason to believe that most of the momentum of coming weeks will be towards the centre and away from the extremes.
No more than the signing of the agreement on Good Friday, the referendum results do not constitute an end in themselves. This democratic validation or endorsement of the agreement has been a necessary prelude to the elections in five weeks' time which, in turn, will lead on to the creation of a new Assembly at Stormont, new cross-border institutions and new east-west links between Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. The proximate task is to ensure that when the votes are cast on June 25th they will return to the Assembly a secure majority which is committed to the fulfilment of both the spirit and the letter of the agreement. That will require hard campaigning and very astute political footwork, for the course is strewn with contentious and potentially explosive issues. That campaigning begins now. Friday's vote, as Lord Alderdice put it, is not just a mandate from the people to make the agreement work. It is an imperative from the people.