Good Friday Agreement: 'A Nelson Mandela in Northern Ireland?'

The legacy of the Troubles - and what to do about the past - is an issue that dominates hearts and minds in 2023.

A controversial UK government bill going through Westminster is offering conditional amnesties to perpetrators who co-operate with a new information recovery body - a kind of truth recovery process, not unlike the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the Royal Ulster Constabulary's chief constable when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, recalls speaking to a member of South Africa's truth commission, who told him "we could never have succeeded without Nelson Mandela... I don't know if you have a Nelson Mandela in Northern Ireland".

When asked if we did, Sir Ronnie said: "We have people who aspire to peace and who have done a great job. Some no longer with us."