20th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement: 'We wanted peace' says Councillor who voted Yes

We all voted against our better judgement in 1998 to save lives and try to get the country straightened up.
If I had to do it again, it’s doubtful if I would have stayed the course.
We wanted peace. 
I had an awful hard time for backing the agreement. There were times I couldn’t even go into my own village to have a drink with mates.
My son was David Trimble’s secretary. I was well informed about what was going on and I had a right bit of input with Trimble – not that he always listened to me! We were more or less promised at the time that, as we went along, we would get nearer to a coalition government. That has never materialised. 
During negotiations for the Good Friday Agreement, I told Mr. Trimble: ‘There’s one thing Sinn Féin want more than anything and that’s to get their prisoners out and you should bleed them dry before you give it to them.’ And he didn’t listen, he walked in the next morning and gave it to them.
There have been that many concessions made since 1998 I think it’s about time people started to live up to them.
The Paisley propaganda poisoned people against politics, then the DUP changed their coat and done worse than the UUP had done through some of the concessions they made.
I was disappointed by the St. Andrew’s Agreement because they said the biggest party would be First Minister and that gave Sinn Féin a big lift that they never expected. It should have been an open vote in Parliament to see who would be First and deputy First Minister.
I am very disappointed at how the whole thing has turned out.
The current situation is totally irresponsible. 
I don’t understand how anyone can say to the old lady I met the other day, whose hip was clicking as she walked across the floor in desperate pain, that an Irish language act is more important than a hospital.
I don’t see a way forward unless the Secretary of State and the British government has the gumption to call all the MLAs in and say: ‘Those of you who want to form a government, form a government. Those of you who don’t want to form a government, get out.’
When you’re stuck for answers, you’ve got to go back to basics.
This talk of a threat of going back to war. No way. There’s no way back for the boys back to war – that’s a nonsense.
This is not a popular view but I believe that Martin McGuinness was the only man who really crossed the Rubicon. He was a bad, bad man for a long time but I think he did realise that things had to change. I believe that if Martin McGuinness had been at himself and was going to live, he would not have pulled down the government.
I was happy enough to see the UUP going into opposition, but the current system is such that it kills politics. It kills off initiative.
You have the two extremes with the two biggest parties who were no good to the country, either of them. They were both destroying the country when we didn’t have a government, now they are back doing it again.