THIS week sees the 40th anniversary of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

Despite reactions at that time, this proved to be a cardinal political development and the backdrop for the subsequent emergent peace process.

The diplomatic graft and crafts that achieved this game-changer were voiced thoughtfully in a special commemorative conference hosted by QUB on Tuesday.

Jointly sponsored by the Queen’s Mitchell Institute, the Hume Foundation, Royal Irish Academy and the Department of Foreign Affairs, this event acknowledged the depth and breadth of unionist antagonism while also tracing how the New Ireland Forum had gone some way to reconditioning the traditional nationalist analysis to inform the negotiations (from the Dublin side at least).

Alex Kane: How unionism missed its moment after the ‘betrayal’ of the Anglo-Irish Agreement

Mark Durkan: The Anglo-Irish Agreement changed both unionism and republicanism

Other treatments might dwell on the mixed evidence of the impact of the machinery created of the Joint Secretariat and Intergovernmental Conference at different levels. But a focus on the political import of establishing a say for Dublin on affairs in the north, and the failure of strident unionist objection to thwart this, shows that the baseline thinking in both unionism and republicanism shifted after the new givens of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

John Hume held that the 1985 Agreement would induce a catharsis in unionism. He took confirmation from the recalibration of demands from abandonment towards “suspension of the workings of”. Quite comfortable with unionist pitching for “an alternative to and replacement of the Hillsborough Accord”, he could take particular vindication from the fact that any negotiations towards........

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