When the Secretary of the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Terry Carlin, stood at the back of the room in Stormont to see the Good Friday Agreement accepted by politicians in April 1998, he was jubilant.

The trade union movement had long argued for progressive change and had consistently opposed violence. Terry himself had overseen the shift from the movement being ‘non-sectarian’ to ‘anti-sectarian,’ and had fronted demonstrations that highlighted the disproportionate impact of the conflict on people from the most deprived communities.

The Good Friday Agreement, often known by Unionists as the Belfast Agreement, contained many core principles essential to peacebuilding – respect for human rights; an emphasis on equality; an inclusive understanding of citizenship; and acceptance of the democratic right of the majority in Northern Ireland to decide on their constitutional future. It was, as the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader and Nobel Laureate John Hume said, an acknowledgement that respect for difference was the first and deepest principle of peace.

British Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, looked exhausted, but exhilarated that day. She had flung her wig in frustration across tables the night before; sworn roundly at any delegate backsliding; and kicked off her shoes in the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition offices.

The Coalition might have been a small party, but as a women’s party it was close to Mo’s heart. As the first ever female Secretary of State, Mo continued to illicitly brief the Coalition over tête–à–têtes in the ladies’ loo. Unlike her civil servant minders, she recognised that the Coalition was speaking to everyone – Nationalists and Unionists, Loyalists and Republicans. In fact, it had been deliberately designed with a co-leadership to reflect the two main traditions, as well as with three guiding principles – equality, human rights and inclusion.

The peace negotiations were about reaching a settlement that would end the violence through accommodation, but for the Women’s Coalition it was about more than this. It was about a new participative politics. Protracted violence had narrowed and artificially corralled politics into the ‘them’ and the ‘us’ of constitutional zero-sum games. The argument that the Women’s Coalition put forward for a Civic Forum, as an advisory second chamber, was designed to give the trade union movement, employer and agricultural interests, as well as the community and women’s movement, a place in political policy-making.

The principle of inclusion, important to both the Coalition and the peace process, found wording in the Agreement, which spoke of ‘parity of esteem’ for the different identities and the right of people in Northern Ireland to be British, Irish, or both. In 1998, the joint European Union identity was also a common thread.

It’s true that some Coalition activists muttered that inclusion had gone too far when entertaining Martin McGuinness at 5am on Good Friday. As a practicing Catholic, he heard that meat-free sandwiches were on the go. He recited one of his own poems in exchange for a sandwich; all one Coalition member could respond with was an elongated Limerick with verses castigating some fellow negotiators. Mo enjoyed it.

Mo Mowlam poured her heart and soul into that Agreement. When first appointed Secretary of State she had experienced the havoc of the proxy war over parades, flags, and territoriality. She knew how tenuous the peace process was and the following August suffered the trauma of the devastation of the Omagh bomb. The misinterpretation of a gesture, or using the wrong words, could bring the whole edifice down.

Notwithstanding her own failing health, Mo trailed around trade unions, community groups, women’s centres, employer associations, as well as the elected politicians, to sell the Agreement. This was an internationally-recognised settlement, in addition to being an agreement between two sovereign governments – the British and the Irish. It was ratified by the dual referenda of the people of Ireland, North and South. It was not something designed to ever be the plaything of party political interests.

The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement has been substantially, although not fully, implemented.  There are still issues, such as the implementation of promised human rights provisions and adequate measures to deal with the often toxic legacies of the past which need to be addressed. But in a global context characterised by the failure of more peace agreements than those that succeed, the Northern Ireland peace process needs to be nurtured by due regard for the provisions of the Agreement.

That’s why it is so heartening to see Labour, who are right to be proud of their role in the peace, launch the Good Friday Agreement education programme for hundreds of thousands of members.  I’m glad to be involved in that because often those in Westminster, and in recent years particularly some in the Conservative Party, have overlooked and neglected the Agreement that so many people worked so hard and took risks to deliver. Given this, Labour’s efforts aren’t just worthy, but essential.

If politics is the art of the possible, then Mo would have been the first to acknowledge that the Agreement that she oversaw is the charter of the possible in terms of peacebuilding – then and now. Each of us have a responsibility to progress these possibilities and build a better future.