It has become heresy of late to say or do anything that might jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement. Push for a ‘Hard Brexit’ – that is, the removal of the entire UK, including Northern Ireland, from the European Union – and you’ll be accused of showing contempt for this treaty that ended the Troubles. Brexiteers display a ‘casual disdain’ for the GFA, the ‘fragile accord that ended a bloody war’, says a writer for the Guardian.

CNN warns that the ‘disorder’ of late 20th-century Northern Ireland might return if Brexit Britain scuppers any part of the GFA. We might see the end of ‘the fragile peace that binds together the region’s diverse community’, apparently. (Why is peace in Ireland always ‘fragile’? Someone needs to remind these writers that the Troubles have now been over for longer than they lasted.)

Politicians of all stripes worship the GFA like a holy tract. Prime minister Rishi Sunak is organising a huge celebration for the 25th anniversary of the signing of the GFA – on Monday 10 April – which we can expect to be a borderline religious affair. President Biden, no less, will attend, to celebrate the ‘tremendous progress’ delivered to Ireland by this blessed agreement.