this is bbc news, the headlines: tens of thousands of catholics worshippers have gathered in saint peter's square in rome — as pope francis presided over easter sunday mass. in his traditional holiday blessing, the pontiff called for an end to all global conflicts and prayed for all social wounds to be healed. king charles, the queen consort camilla as well as other senior royals gather at windsor castle for easter sunday service. the royal family are attending st george's chapel for the first service of the new monarch�*s reign. jewish worshippers converge on the western wall for the passover blessing injerusalem. there's heavy security as officials fear violence could breakout. a short distance away,

hundreds of palestinians have barricaded themselves inside the al—aqsa mosque injerusalem. tensions remain high, as israeli police stopped palestinian men from entering the compound, forcing them to pray outside the old city gates. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for troubles and peace. 25 years since the good friday agreement was signed, this is a story of history and hope. the good friday agreements promised that a new generation would live in peace. it gave people hope that life would be different, and it was, for us. i'm very happy growing up in northern ireland compared to what it was, i think it's a great place. it was a really formative time. what we were studying in the classroom - wasn't in a textbook. the deal largely ended

the longest—running conflict in europe, 25 years ago. i thought, this is not a conflict that has got any place in the new millennium. if you want to solve it, you have to take that risk and talk to those who actually control the violence. enemies compromised and differences were settled. this is a story ofjeopardy, dilemmas and leadership. tony blair: |think| there's a hope that - ifeel the hand of history upon our shoulders. kerrie and erin had never met before. if they had been from a previous generation, they probably wouldn't have met at all. but they were born on the day of a peace deal. we are very lucky that we grew up where we did after the good friday agreement. lived a very happy life so far, always enjoyed all my

classes, loads of opportunities. they are in the newest cinema in northern ireland in a shopping centre in belfast, which was bombed five times in as many years. they are reflecting on scenes of bloodshed which they have never known. very different than what i would have grown up in, two different worlds. even hearing places like castle court, shankill road, places in belfast i would know and have been in the past 25 years of my life, that looks so different than what they do now. it's utterly heartbreaking. i think it's really, really hard to watch. you just can't imagine that's what it used to be like. the conflict known as the troubles was complex, but it was basically about whether northern ireland should remain in the uk or be part of the republic of ireland. around 3,500 people were killed over almost three decades, until the good friday agreement.

i'm very happy growing up in northern ireland. there's nothing i think that would really put me off staying here and having a family, compared to what it was, i think it's a great place to live. having hope in my middle name, i think when everyone gets to the 10th of april every year, it comes up, that s what it gave people, hope, every time, that life would be different. and it was, for us. the violence was rising, - and so i thought, this is doomed to failure if we - continue in this way. there were many years when hope was hard to come by. but some leaders did have ideas for a peaceful process. this man was one of them. john hume, from the social democratic and labor party, or sdlp, who were irish nationalists. i honestly think thatjohn hume had the courage of a lion to keep going. he had a vision.

the key issue was reconciliation between the communities, who were deeply divided, and peace and non—violence. the most lethal paramilitary group was the irish republican army, which wanted to bring about a united ireland. in the late 1980s, john hume began initially secret talks with the ira's political wing, sinn fein. probably the big breakthrough was whenjohn hume agreed to meet. one of the things that was crucially important was the right to self—determination, that the people of the island would have the right to decide the future. the ira called a ceasefire in 1994. there was then a similar move by militants on the other side of the conflict, who were known as loyalist paramilitaries.

the british and irish governments opened peace negotiations with the northern ireland parties. the chair was the former us senate majority leader, george mitchell. i confess, i was not prepared for the way the talks developed. it was very controversial. i have a pass, i have a pass! there was a lot of insults, a lot of shouting, there were dramatic walkouts. i was determined from the beginning to act as fairly, as impartially and calmly as i could. sinn fein had been barred from the talks because the ira hadn't given up any weapons and had broken its ceasefire. in 1997, a new prime minister came to power in britain. i thought, here we are, we've been decades in this conflict. we're approaching the 21st century. it's — this is not a conflict

that has got any place in the new millennium. the good friday or belfast agreement became possible because there was a new mood and sentiment, because people recognised there was no way the british were going to be able to extinguish republicanism, nor was there any way in which the republican movement was going to bomb the british out of northern ireland. and so people realised that in the end, we could carry on exhausting ourselves with violence, or we could reach for peace. a month after tony blair was elected, bertie ahern took over as leader of the irish government, called the taoiseach. the pair became a peace process double act, and they had help from the most powerful man on the planet. there is no better politician, just as a professional

politician, in the world than bill clinton. and that was invaluable through this. because it meant that you had the power of the united states behind you, but notjust in itself, but operating with immense sophistication and subtlety. following the change of leadership in london and dublin, the ira restored its ceasefire. sinn fein was allowed to go into the negotiations. for the governments, this wasn't comfortable, but they believed it was crucial. you have to talk to the extremes. you can be blue in the face talking to people who are not involved in violence, but will that stop violence? it's not easy for democratic governments and legitimate, sovereign governments to say, we have to go out and talk to people who are involved in treacherous deeds, and military deeds. but if you want to solve it, you have to take that risk and talk to those who actually

control the violence. the entry into the talks of the party associated with the ira was unacceptable for some politicians, particularly those whose aim was to preserve northern ireland's union with britain. the democratic unionist party walked out. it was led by the reverend ian paisley, a protestant preacher who was viewed by many as the embodiment of intransigence. it's stained with blood! it's surrender they want! nobody should be allowed to enter the talks until there had been — my father would've used the word repentance from terrorism. but the setting aside of the weapons, and making sure that people were there all on the same basis, otherwise it would look as if violence paid. but most unionists stayed in the negotiations. for the first time, the parties linked to loyalist paramilitaries were talking face—to—face with republican militants. as far as i was concerned, they were the enemy. but i also recognise

that we were trying to get to a goal. i used to laugh because i used to see people from other parties, talking to people, and saying to them afterwards, do you not know who they are? these are some of the most wanted people in europe, and you don't even know you're talking to. the ulster unionist party, led by david trimble, was the largest unionist group, and took the risk of remaining. if you had come to the conclusion that the only way you could defend your interests was to physically be at the table and negotiate them, that meant swallowing a lot of very difficult things, including the fact that we had people in that building whom we knew had significant terrorist involvement, but they would not have been in that building had they been winning the fight on the ground. during those momentous days, the peace process was a big topic

at my old school. we discussed it in class and debated it in the current affairs society. the year of 1997—98 was a year of expectancy and tension in northern ireland politics, with parties working around the clock to try and reach an agreement by the may deadline. the current affairs team consisted of chairpersons simon mcavoy, committee members, gail mcconnell, and secretary victoria dunaden. it felt like such an exciting time because what we were studying in the classroom wasn't in a textbook. we all remember very well whenever president clinton came _ to belfast and not just i because we got a day off school for that. it's... honestly one of the most incredible things i've really participated in. it seemed to me like the whole of northern ireland had shown up. we got there quite early in the day so we were right down the front. you know, my dad was always really

keen for these things so we were there with the lunch and everything else, and waited for hours. then when he finally showed up, i mean, it's as close to sort of a god arriving on earth that i think i have ever experienced. he was just an incredible, charismatic guy who just held an audience of whatever it was, half a million people or something, just held them in the palm of his hand. that word, hope, it felt like there was hope. gill, you have written a couple of critically—acclaimed volumes of poetry, one of which i have given you, the sun is open, it focuses on very personal experiences in your life that you did speak about. my own personal history was that my father was a prison governor in the maze prison, and he was shot and killed by the ira outside our home in 1984 when i was three and a half. and so for me i felt like i really wanted to try to understand the kind

of...the very long history, the long colonial history and immediate political history that had created the context for my father's murder and for everything that followed. i remember you when sinn fein came, you were sitting right up from the front. i remember you sitting there. i don't think you spoke, you just listened but i do remember you. i was conscious of you in the room. i do remember you sitting there and listening to them, very intently. and people don't tend to sit at the front of those meetings which i think is why in a way you stood out, but i was aware of your story in that sense. i'll read something from this which speaks to the moment of my father's murder i suppose but also tries to reckon with an aftermath, and it's sort of an aftermath that's endless, really. "my father rejoices. "that's what it means.

"my name, i mean, but, did he? "what, if anything was the source of his joy? "was there joy between us? "before he left, or after he walks through the hall, the squeaky door "saddle, across the tiles, walking outside into the morning, "into those bullets, sailing through the blue air, "into perforation, into a heap, into gravel, an almost human shape, "into death, into silence, or whatever comes after." the sombre difference

between failure and success became more real for the negotiators in the spring of 1998. the violence was rising, there was a period of escalatory and retaliatory violence, and so i thought, "this is doomed to failure if we continue in this way," and so i developed a plan for an intense final two—week period and a hard deadline, and the parties and the governments all agreed to it and that's when i felt the first sense of hope. he set a cut—off date of thursday 9 april, but with just over 48 hours to go, a deal was almost inconceivable. reporter: the main stories - on newsline this tuesday evening - the prime minister arrives at hillsborough as talks hit crisis point. i mean, i was determined to come but there was no doubt

it was a political risk because most people said, "look, this is hopeless, all you will do is end up as with egg on your face, so don't go." a lot of people said that. the prime minister delivered a memorable message when he arrived. a day like today, it isn't a day for soundbites, really. you can leave those at home. i feel the hand of history upon our shoulder, respectively, i really do. but the parties were deadlocked. the sticking point was about government agencies which would operate across northern ireland and the irish republic. while enduring extreme political pressure, bertie ahern was also dealing with personal pain. my mam had died on the sunday but i remember on the tuesday evening, george mitchell contacted me and said, "listen, no, this isn't working, it's not flying." we came the conclusion that the whole thing could break down if i didn't go up on wednesday morning. had he not come back, in my view, we were finished.

i think he understood the whole point of a deal, that people had to be able to go back to their respective supporters after the deal was done and defend it. my mam's funeral was at 12 or so, so the view was i needed to go up and meet tony blair at the crack of dawn, and then go and meet the parties. that's what i did. i went up on that, and then back down, and back up again straight after the funeral. but that got things back on track. in the negotiations on the stormont estate, nerves were fought and sleep was scant. pressure cooker is a pretty good description, it was pretty tense. people were very nervous. there was a lot of running between the different floors, and also along the corridors, because that is where a lot of the negotiations were happening. i think the coldness was a good thing because if it had been very

warm in that building, everyone would've been out for the count. on thursday night, ian paisley wanted his say. we've got here, i asked that you get up here as far as you could. we've done that. i remember storming the gates. i know the person who cut the chain. i saw what happened, it happened right in front of our eyes, and pushing the gates open and walking onto the estate, and marching up that hill. that mile became very short, powering our way up the hill. i was inside and i was watching - the news, and it was showing paisley so everybody pilled into the coffee lounge, the top floor, _ to look out. i remember a pile of dup members racing out and they started - to heckle him. ian, where are you going to take us?! indistinct yelling. ian: well, | wish i you would walk out! while some divisions were deepening, others were disappearing.

there was a deal on the issue of the new regional parliament, a power—sharing assembly. there's a famous picture that was captured of you embracing a party colleague. that was when seamus mallon came down from the rooms where they were negotiating and told us they had made a breakthrough on the assembly situation and trimble had agreed to it. and we were so relieved. i mean, i threw my arms around him and i said, "i can't believe it!" because that had been a very tough negotiation. the deadline passed as good friday dawned. president clinton phoned the parties to press for a deal,

but the ulster unionists wouldn't agree without further commitments that paramilitaries would disarm, so tony blair wrote a letter to david trimble. i thought maybe we had lost it but then i gave the additional commitment to the unionists. this is where david trimble did exercise real leadership. he sold that commitment to his delegation. david came into the room and there was a lot of tension. he stood up on a chair or a table and he said that it was his intention to go up the stairs to george mitchell to tell him he was going to accept the agreement. a few minutes before five o'clock in the afternoon, i david called me in, and yes. i remember his exact words, he said, "we're ready to do the business." i i thanked him. i asked him if he could be available for a meeting immediately at 5pm, j he said, "i will be there." i called all the other parties. it seems like ages, you know, you were just wondering

who was going to come through the door. had a great sigh of relief when we saw sinn fein and then david coming in. i'm not sure if that was exactly the way it was but they were the last two big ones to come in and we thought, "yes! this has happened." the two governments and the political parties of northern ireland have reached agreement. applause. this was one of those very few moments in politics where it was a moment of pretty much unalloyed joy. there weren't many of those, i can tell you. i had made a point of saying to the women, "we better hold back the tears," because they would say, "then the women started crying," but actually as i pushed

back my chair, i looked up and the men were crying. however, for unionists the mood was different. we didn't have a sense of euphoria at all. it was all very well sitting around there and clapping but we knew we had to go out of that room into the real world outside, where people were hurting and angry, and persuade them to support us. i remember seeing a copy of the ulster unionist piece, and pencilled down in the margins, was a notation of each significant line, "unionists loss", "unionist loss", another loss here, prisoner releases, ultimately changed the royal ulster constabulary. the fact that balance was paid achieved some of these things. i am confident that we will go out of here... i sinn fein viewed that the previous peace agreements had generated bloodsoaked splits among republicans, so the party leaders didn't support the deal immediately. they sold it to their members, focusing on the new potential for a public vote on a united ireland in the future. we were at pains to keep republicans empowered, that it wasn't just an elite,

it was the party as a whole, the movement, the broad republican movement. the agreement received rockstar backing. u2, the biggest irish band ever, put on a campaign concert as people were deciding how to vote on the deal. one of the things i remember was being slightly frustrated by members of the class who i deemed to be more politically conservative than me, and kind of feeling like the stakes for me feel higher. like, one of my father murderers is going to get out on good friday — and did get out under the good friday agreement — and i would have voted, if i could have, in favour of it. the agreement was endorsed in the referendum. david trimble and john hume won the nobel peace prize. but, at home, they were politically punished for the compromises. the absence of paramilitary disarmament destabilised

power—sharing. voters turned to the dup and sinn fein, which became the largest parties. there were several more years of negotiations. paramilitaries eventually did give up their weapons. in 2007, ian paisley agreed to lead the regional governmentjointly with a former ira commander, martin mcguinness. it got the real extremes of northern ireland into government together. that day was a very special day in our household but also a very special day for northern ireland because they really did see a miracle, quite frankly. my main feeling as we were coming down the stairs was, "i can't believe this is happening." martin mcguinness said to me one time he never thought he'd see i the day when.. he'd kneel down every night when ian wasn't well and he'd be _

saying his prayers - that ian would be ok. and it did show that we had really travelled. . it's notable that so many people involved in the story are no longer here — ian paisley, martin mcguinness, john hume, david trimble. the peace isn't perfect, power—sharing at stormont has frequently been prone to collapse and, in recent years, it has often been absent. but political violence is now extremely rare, and that's the achievement the agreement generation is passing on. the legacy is that we got peace and we stopped the killing. you had leaders that were prepared even at personal, political risk to face down the recalcitrant elements in their own party and move forward. and, you know, that is why it's a lesson for peace processes everywhere. we're going to play you a video of two people who were born on 10 april 1998. i'm interested to hear what you make of what they have

to say about the northern ireland they have grown up in. yeah, i'm very grateful that leaders in theirfields came to northern ireland to positively drive forward the change and, you know, bring together both sides of the equation to form an agreement. i think they are fantastic, they are role models. ithink... ijust hope coming up to the 25—year anniversary that things can start moving forward again with the politics. we're at a bit of a standstill at the minute. it would be a shame to see all the hard work be undone. to see these two young people serves as kind of a bookend for me because on the saturday after the good friday agreement, as i left, there were two elderly women and they said to me, "thanks to you, our grandchildren will live in peace, "which we've never had." it has a lot of meaning to me. i love the people and the place of northern ireland,

and i pray that they will continue in peace. hello there. the weather story is on the change for our week ahead, but for many today, we should see some sunshine and warmth. that sounds a little bit odd if you woke up to skies like this in aberdeenshire — a lot of low cloud, mist and fog. the best of the sunshine first thing in the morning was out to the west and bigbury—on—sea in devon, a beautiful start here. and we will keep some sunshine today but there's rain on the way with this swirl of cloud, this area of low pressure that's going to bring rain into northern ireland through the middle part of the afternoon.

so cloudy conditions as we go through the day, eventually wetter. a brisk southerly breeze starting to pick up and that should help to lift any low cloud as we go through the day. so, sunny spells for many across the country today. we could actually see the warmest day of the year so far. in orderfor that to happen, we have to see temperatures above 17.8 degrees. we mightjust see that, but unfortunately, with that sunshine and that warmth, well, the pollen across england and wales, and it's tree pollen at this time of year, looks high or very high. now, as we go through the rest of the evening and overnight, the rain moves out of northern ireland and into scotland. the trailing weather front will bring a blanket of cloud as well across england and wales. so that will clear away first thing on easter monday. and then tightly packed isobars drive in plenty of showers from the west. so a grey and wet start across eastern england, the centre of the lowjust to the west of scotland — that's where we'll see most frequent showers. and some of these showers as we go

through the afternoon could be quite heavy, maybe with the odd rumble of thunder. not everywhere will see the showers and if you do manage to escape them, you could see highs of 15 degrees, but will be a slightly cooler day, particularly in the sharper showers with temperatures struggling at around 12 or 13 celsius and a frequent rash into the far north of scotland — here, nine to 12 degrees the high. so as we move out of easter monday into tuesday, another low moves in, bringing yet more wet and windy weather. the winds remain a feature and then another frontal system and an area of low pressure is set to push in from the atlantic. so our week ahead looks pretty unsettled. showers or longer spells of rain, the winds will be a feature at times and those temperatures just a little bit below par for the time of year.

live from london. this is bbc news. tens of thousands of catholics gather in saint peter's square in rome — as pope francis delivers his traditional easter blessing. the king and queen consort and senior royals gather at windsor castle for the first easter sunday service of the monarch�*s reign. jewish worshippers converge at the western wall for the passover blessing injerusalem. a short distance away, hundreds of palestinians have barricaded themselves inside al aqsa mosque — as a tense stand—off with israeli police continues.