A caller to BBC Radio Ulster last week expressed astonishment that copies of the Belfast Agreement were being printed in the Irish language. It seemed particularly ridiculous when many people could not even understand the agreement in English, he protested.
While the caller's comments about the complexity of the document will have won some public sympathy, his dismissive reference to the Irish language will not have gone down well among those nationalists who view the equality agenda as the keystone of the agreement.
Equality issues, which include policing, jobs, the Irish language, and human rights are important to competing political allegiances in Northern Ireland, but often for different reasons. Unionists want no tampering with the RUC and are suspicious of new human rights legislation and initiatives to tackle job discrimination.
Nationalists, conversely, place enormous store on reform of the RUC, fair distribution of jobs, human rights, and promotion of the Irish language. For many nationalists, and more particularly for republicans, the success or failure of this agreement hinges on the equality agenda being fully implemented.
The British and Irish governments, the SDLP and Sinn Fein were deeply conscious of this as the agreement was taking shape over the many months leading up to Good Friday at Castle Buildings, Stormont.
Particular elements of the Belfast Agreement tend to relate more to one side than the other. Consent, for example, is a crucial principle for unionists, and it is fair to say that the equality issues are primarily geared to satisfying nationalists.
Tactically, Sinn Fein has been describing the deal as part of a dynamic transitionally leading to a united Ireland. The North-South dimension allowed it to make that case, but it also needed other sweeteners to persuade wavering republicans that this was an agreement worth supporting.
It was notable that for many months prior to the agreement senior Sinn Fein figures such as Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness placed significant concentration on equality matters. The phrase "equality agenda" became a mantra, and - as planned - it sank into the general republican consciousness.
When these matters were included in the agreement, Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness were able to point to what had been achieved. Where republicans would have misgivings about many elements of the agreement, they could nonetheless take comfort in civil and human rights issues being addressed.
Equality issues are pervasive throughout the agreement. On page 2 of the 30-page document, the British and Irish governments pledge they will act with "rigorous impartiality on behalf of all the people" and refer to "parity of esteem" and "equality of civil, political, social and cultural rights", and "of freedom from discrimination for all citizens".
To bolster this aspiration in practical terms the British government promises to sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), establish an Equality Commission - incorporating the Fair Employment Commission, the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Disability Commission - and establish a new Human Rights Commission. (This Commission was actually set in train before the agreement.) It further proposes a Bill of Rights for the North.
The Irish Government falls short of committing itself to signing up to the ECHR but promises an "equivalent level of protection of human rights as pertains in Northern Ireland". The Government will also form a Human Rights Commission, which will co-operate with the Northern Commission in a joint committee "as a forum for consideration of human rights issues in the island of Ireland".
The agreement states that "where appropriate and where people so desire it" the British government will take "resolute action to promote the Irish language" including placing a statutory duty on the Department of Education in the North to facilitate Irish-medium education. Support for Scots-Irish is also promised.
On the RUC, the agreement seeks to provide the "opportunity for a new beginning to policing in Northern Ireland, with a police service capable of attracting and sustaining support from the community as a whole". An independent commission on policing headed by the last British governor of Hong Kong, Mr Chris Patten, will try to achieve that difficult ambition.
Mr Tony Blair on his recent visit to Northern Ireland said the RUC would not be disbanded, and local policing would not be run by former paramilitaries. However he also signalled that there would be reform to try to ensure the force could be acceptable to both communities.
The British government will also initiate a "wide-ranging review of the criminal justice system" which could lead to the end of non-jury Diplock courts. While coming more under the head of confidence-building measures but still tied in with equality issues, the agreement also provides for the release of paramilitary prisoners within two years, and "consistent with the level of threat" British demilitarisation "compatible with a normal peaceful society".
Early prisoner releases places a great emotional burden on victims and the bereaved. Mr Blair's pledge to provide additional support for the victims may, in some small measure, provide a degree of comfort for the victims.
Nationalists and republicans, based on the extent to which it is addressed, can certainly tell their supporters that the equality agenda is a major feature of the agreement. But whether all these pledges and aspirations can be delivered is another matter. Here again, nationalists can point to the safeguards in the agreement aimed at ensuring there is no going back on the equality promises.
For instance it clearly states that while a new assembly will have authority to pass legislation for Northern Ireland in devolved areas, such legislation would be rendered null and void if it were found in the courts to be in breach of the ECHR and any Bill of Rights.
So, nationalists can take great solace from the deal. But given the nature of Northern Ireland, where nationalists are happy, unionists must be anxious. And they have many concerns about equality issues, particularly matters such as policing, prisoners, fair employment, and the Irish language.
It is on these issues that some uncertain unionists may decide to oppose the agreement on May 22nd. The governments hope that a sufficient number, regardless of their understandable difficulties with the deal, ultimately will accept that it is a balanced document.
Certainly Mr Blair and Mr Ahern will realise that there can be no going back on the equality pledges now that Sinn Fein has shed key articles of faith at its ardfheis in Dublin on Sunday.
Without the equality agenda, republicans could not have come this far.