The politicians must now use that to the uttermost, or it would rapidly close They did not. Back in 1968, General Sir Ian Freeland, the first senior soldier sent out to try to control the troubles, made the wisest comment by anyone charged with administering Northern Ireland in the province’s history. Both the main cultural traditions in the province should be treated properly. The electoral arrangements for devolved government would ensure that the Catholic minority had representatives at the Cabinet table.That is the only viable basis for stability in the province. Yet the very difficulty of persuading its politicians should have been a warning. The basis for an agreement in an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is equally obvious.

When ethnic or religious conflict is involved, “obvious” should not be conflated with “easy to achieve”.But after Good Friday, Tony Blair was master of events The agreement almost gave him a title to greatness. What a tragedy it was that he let everything dribble away to littleness, because he would not exert his grip. I will be charged with being discourteous and manipulative, publicity seeking, for having no consistency, much worse I am sure The wolves are already howling outside Zephaniah’s door. All sides should accept the democratic legitimacy of Northern Ireland. All paramilitary organisations should disarm and disband, in exchange for an amnesty and the right to take part in politics.

Those tempted to write him off as a mere tawdry thespian, whose gimmicks are becoming increasingly cynical, as is his audience, should first cast their minds back to the fraught final hours before Good Friday, 1998. An agreement was more or less in being, but there was a problem Very few of the leading figures would agree to it Then Tony Blair went to Belfast and took command. This was not choreography: Mr Blair seized those faltering negotiations by the scruff of the neck and rescued them. With the sole exception of Ian Paisley, who did not matter so much in those days, the PM imposed his diplomatic, intellectual and moral authority on all the principals, from the Irish government to Sinn Fein.It might seem odd that he had to.

However difficult it may have been to arrive at the Belfast agreement, it was the only one which could ever have worked It was intended to embody four principles. Indeed, there have been several occasions over the past 35 years when it was not inevitable that Ulster would take the wrong turning. Each time, the ultimate responsibility lay with a failure of intellect and will at Westminster. The same will be true if the Good Friday agreement eventually collapses.That agreement is worth revisiting, for it was Tony Blair’s finest hour. So are the people of Northern Ireland.It need not have been like this. The English version was merely choreographed fraudulence; If Mr Blair really thinks that anyone will mistake that interchange of treacly banalities for a conversation, he is losing his political touch.
In Ulster, however, there was no treacle It was a real conversation, albeit a brief one It consisted of one word of two letters, beginning with “N” The word was reinforced by a two-fingered gesture As a result, Mr Blair’s greatest achievement is in trouble. It would be a delicious irony, were it not so serious.