Good Friday agreement anniversary marked

Key players from the negotiations to secure the Good Friday agreement have been marking its tenth anniversary.

On April 10, 1998, the Belfast Agreement set out a route map for Northern Irish devolution and included provisions for the establishment of human rights and equality commissions, the early release of terrorist prisoners, policing reforms and the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.

Among those attending an anniversary event in the city on Thursday were outgoing Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, US senator George Mitchell and Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey.

Contributions were also being offered by SDLP leader Mark Durkan, ex-Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice and former Irish foreign minister David Andrews, among others.

However former prime minister Tony Blair and ex-US president Bill Clinton were unable to attend.

Writing in The House Magazine earlier this month, Blair explained that during the Northern Ireland peace process: "We were... blessed by political leadership of a high order in Northern Ireland itself.

"With John Hume, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness on the nationalist and republican side and David Trimble and, later, Ian Paisley on the unionist side."

He added: "All of them were committed to reaching an agreement, and without the determination and the leadership they showed their communities, it would not have been possible to succeed."

Meanwhile, SDLP leader Mark Durkan has described the Agreement as the "high water mark of democracy in Northern Ireland".

He went on to state: "The Good Friday agreement was the emancipation of hope; our task is now the emancipation of opportunity."