POLITICIANS WHO undermine the potential of the Belfast Agreement will not be forgiven, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has warned.
Speaking at the Mitchell Conference examining the lessons from the Troubles at Queen's University Belfast, Mr Ahern urged the new political leaders at Stormont, Dublin and London "not to reverse anything".
"Personalities do make a difference," he said of the new leaders of both the DUP and Fianna Fáil, "and I wouldn't like to be a politician in the next 10 or 20 years that reverses anything. My advice to them is just to get on with it."
Mr Ahern said the Good Friday agreement was bringing about a new British-Irish relationship. This was built on what he called "the simple principle of mutual respect and understanding, tolerance for one another and a willingness to celebrate the diversity of this island and these islands".
Honorary doctorates were conferred on Mr Ahern and Tony Blair for their role in the peace process. The former prime minister was unable to attend and his acceptance speech was recorded and relayed to the conference.
The conferment was a key ceremony in the two-day conference Moving on From Conflict - Lessons From Northern Ireland, hosted by former US senator and university chancellor George Mitchell.
A series of addresses by senior political figures underscored the watershed nature of the Belfast Agreement and the subsequent referendums that endorsed it in both parts of Ireland.
Ten years to the day after these were passed, Mr Mitchell praised Mr Ahern as "a man of peace and a builder of bridges". He and Mr Blair had built "a mature and solid relationship" between their two governments and this had fostered relations between Ireland and Britain that have never been better, the former US senator said.
He added he had long harboured the ambition to return to Northern Ireland with his young son and to tour around what he described as some of the most striking scenery on the planet.
He also wanted to bring his son to visit the Assembly "on some wet afternoon and to sit in the public gallery at Stormont". There, members would not debate war, because the conflict was over; nor would they talk of peace, because stability would be taken for granted. Instead they would discuss education, investment and other topics, he said.
He said that trip would take place next summer. The occasion was used by Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin to appeal to the leading Northern parties to complete the task of devolution by agreeing to exercise policing and justice powers at Stormont.
During a discussion on the new policing dispensation, policing board chairman Prof Sir Desmond Rea said his board was ready, "but it is for the politicians to decide" on timing.
Former president Mary Robinson called for resolution of questions holding up agreement on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, former deputy first minister Séamus Mallon praised Lord David Trimble for his courage in signing up to the Belfast Agreement, but accused other unionists and the British and Irish governments of not doing enough to support Mr Trimble after he had taken risks for peace.
Perhaps surprisingly, Mr Mallon also said often unsung politicians such as Margaret Thatcher, Ted Heath, Jack Lynch, John Major and Garret FitzGerald also deserved some "adulation" for helping fashion the structures such as the Sunningdale and Anglo-Irish agreements, upon which the "Good Friday agreement was built".