Cavan votes 94.5% in favour of Agreement

Cavan-Monaghan, in line with the rest of the country, gave an emphatic endorsement to the Good Friday Peace Agreement in the referendum in 1998. Registering a 93.5% vote in favour, the constituency was just one per cent behind the State as a whole, which delivered an unprecedented 94.5% vote in favour.

In the crucial vote on the Agreement in Northern Ireland, there was a decisive 71.1% vote for the deal, an outcome that delighted the two governments and gave a much-needed boost to the parties supporting the Agreement, particularly the Ulster Unionist Party who had to fend off a strong campaign mounted by the DUP and the UK Unionists in the run-up to the referenda.

Former Taoiseach, Fine Gael Lender, John Bruton, hailed the result as “the beginning of a new and more generous phase in Irish history”. Adding that “huge problems” still had to be overcome, he said: “These can now be approached with the backing of an overwhelming democratic mandate from the people.”

Cavan Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith warmly welcomed the massive vote in favour of the Good Friday Agreement saying that voters both North and South had endorsed the Agreement in emphatic fashion.

Deputy Smith stated that the referendum process both North and South was an historic act of self determination by all the people of this island and the result gave the governments and the political parties the strongest possible democratic authority to implement the Agreement. He said that the Agreement was comprehensive, balanced and fair and would be the basis for a lasting and just peace on this island.

Sinn Fein’s Caomhghín Ó Caoláin described the referendum result as “the beginning of a new phase in Irish politics”. The Cavan/Monaghan TD said that an enormous amount of work had yet to be done before the full potential of the new political situation could be realised. The outcome clearly marked an end to the political status quo and was a “mandate for change”.