PERSPECTIVE SPECIAL

not least because it is clear that to the Brextremist ideologues no price is too high to get out of Europe, and that would include an Agreement that to them, today, is more of an irritant than an essential building block of peace.”

Former prime minister Tony Blair said he did not believe the current problems besetting power-sharing should herald the demise of the political institutions established after the Good Friday deal and insisted it remained the best way to bring deliver devolved governance to the region.

“I can’t believe we can’t find a way through this if we really wanted to,” he said.

Mr Adams has used the anniversary to make a fresh call to save the cross-party power- sharing agreement. “We [Sinn Fein] believe in the Good Friday Agreement and in the institutions,” he added.

“We are committed to their restoration but it can only be on the basis of respect and an appreciation that our future must be a shared future.

“It’s time to draw a second breath and re-engage with each other to build a future in which no one will feel alienated or second class. I believe that better future is still possible.”