With its 25th anniversary less than a week away it is inevitable that various assessments of the Good Friday Agreement will be offered in the days ahead.
It has undoubtedly been a catalyst for seismic change. It has helped transform this society from one overshadowed by the Troubles to one moving towards a brighter future.
For all its achievements, it must also be acknowledged that the Agreement is fragile. Today, the Assembly isn't sitting. Loyalist paramilitaries have been running amok in Co Down. And in February dissident republicans attempted to murder Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell.
There is still a long distance to travel on the road to an authentic shared society at peace with itself and where all identities and aspirations are fully respected.
That is also the depressing conclusion to be drawn from the disgraceful campaign of intimidation which led to the cancellation of GAA taster sessions being hosted at Strandtown Primary School in east Belfast.
East Belfast GAA club has made a hugely positive impact in the less than three years it has been operating in a part of the city which hadn't had its own GAA club since the Troubles. A cross-community ethos is central to the club's DNA; its motto 'together, le chéile, thegither' includes English, Irish and Ulster-Scots to reflect different identities.
The club had hired the grounds of Strandtown PS for 'come and try' sessions in football, hurling and camogie for children "from all communities, societies and ethnic backgrounds" from nursery age to P5 and above.
It is difficult to think of a more vivid expression of the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement than children from different backgrounds playing a new sport together. There have been similar initiatives involving, for example, GAA and rugby clubs.
Yet principal Victoria Hutchinson said Strandtown PS has reluctantly ended the arrangement with East Belfast GAA because of intimidation on social media and directly emailed to the school.
It is appalling that there are those who feel so threatened by the prospect of children playing sport traditionally associated with a different section of the community that they issue threats and abuse to a primary school.
East Belfast GAA has already encountered numerous difficulties in its short history, including a hoax bomb alert and a dispute over installing a GAA pitch at Victoria Park.
It deserves support in its efforts which, it says, are "simply about children from all sections of our community playing sport - together". That would be one meaningful way of fulfilling the promise of the Good Friday Agreement.
