Editing Northern Ireland peace process (section)

===The votes===
In the [[Republic of Ireland]], the results of the vote to change the [[Constitution of Ireland|constitution]] in line with the agreement were:<ref>{{cite news |title=An imperative from the people |work=The Irish Times |date=25 May 1998 |pages=13}}</ref>
{{Referendum|title=Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland referendum<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/Voting/Referenda/PublicationsDocuments/FileDownLoad,1894,en.pdf|title=Referendum Results 1937–2011|work=[[Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government]]|access-date=12 March 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224084849/http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/Voting/Referenda/PublicationsDocuments/FileDownLoad%2C1894%2Cen.pdf|archive-date=24 December 2014}}</ref>|yes=1,442,583|yespct=94.39|no=85,748|nopct=5.61|valid=1,528,331|validpct=98.90|invalid=17,064|invalidpct=1.10|total=1,545,395|turnoutpct=56.26|electorate=2,747,088}}

In Northern Ireland, the results of the vote on the agreement were:<ref>{{cite news |title=An imperative from the people |work=The Irish Times |date=25 May 1998 |pages=13}}</ref>
{{Referendum|title=Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum, 1998|no=274,979|nopct=28.9|yes=676,966|yespct=71.1|valid=|validpct=|invalid=1,738|invalidpct=0.18|total=953,683|turnoutpct=81.1|electorate=}}

There is no official breakdown of how the [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] and [[Unionism in Ireland|unionist]] communities voted, but CAIN, the Conflict Archive on the Internet, estimated that the overwhelming majority (up to 97%) of members of the largely [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] nationalist community in Northern Ireland voted 'Yes'. Their estimate of the largely [[Protestantism|Protestant]] unionist community's support for the agreement was between 51 and 53 per cent.

Complicating matters for the calculation was the turnout, with a substantial increase over elections in many traditionally unionist areas, whilst the turnout was close to that for elections in staunch nationalist areas. Approximately 147,000 more people voted in the referendum than in the subsequent Assembly elections, though it is estimated that there was also some deliberate abstentions by hardline republican voters.

The referendum was calculated centrally so it is not clear what the geographic spread of voting was, but an exit poll found that out of all eighteen constituencies, only [[Ian Paisley]]'s [[North Antrim (UK Parliament constituency)|North Antrim]] stronghold voted against the Agreement.

The pro-agreement result was greeted at the time with relief by supporters of the agreement. However, the scale of sceptical and anti-agreement sentiment in the unionist community, their continued misgivings over aspects of the agreement, and differing expectations from the Agreement on the part of the two communities were to cause difficulties in the following years.