Hello and thank you for listening to the witness history podcast from the BBC World

Service with me, Rachel Noehler. Today I'm taking you back 25 years to the Good Friday

Agreement referendum. It took place in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, six

weeks after the famous peace deal was negotiated. It's six o'clock, the news with Brian Perkins.

It's the 10th of April 1998 and a historic day for Northern Ireland. After 22 months of talks

and almost three days around the clock negotiations an agreement has been reached.

A document outlining a wherehead has been agreed by all the parties involved in the talks at Stormont.

The deal was signed by both unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK

and nationalists who want it to be part of a united island. It was designed to bring an end to

the 30 years of conflict, known as the Troubles. But while the politicians found a way to agree,

would the people? It was a done deal in the early hours, a matter of time, at lunchtime,

and on the verge of collapse in mid afternoon and that's just one day. Now I come the referendums

and the assembly election. 13 miles east of Belfast in Banger. 44-year-old Jane Morris,

a member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, sprung into action. She knew the agreement wasn't

a done deal. She was going to vote yes, but she knew others didn't feel the same,

and there was only six weeks until the referendum. We hired a double-decker bus

at an open top and we got rid of the bus with our flags and everywhere we went in villages,

towns throughout Northern Ireland just trying to lift the mood and feel the excitement and

challenge any opposition. We just wanted to move away from old thinking into a new world

where peace was possible. Did you have any campaign slogans? Our main slogan was

wave goodbye to the dinosaurs. Meanwhile in Belfast, 24-year-old Lee Reynolds,

a member of the Ulster Unionist Party, was going to vote no. When the tax arrived, I read it,

...