The 94.39 per cent vote in the Republic for the Belfast Agreement transcends all fault lines in Irish politics.
Only once before in the history of referendums - the amendment on adoption in 1979 - was a greater Yes vote, 99 per cent, recorded but the turnout on that occasion was only 28.6 per cent.
Another remarkable feature of Friday's referendum is that the result crossed the classical liberal/conservative divide in Irish politics. There was only a difference of 3.55 per cent between the highest and lowest Yes votes across the 41 constituencies. The highest Yes vote was recorded in Cork East (96.34 per cent), followed by Dun Laoghaire (95.80 per cent) and Dublin North (95.72 per cent). The lowest Yes votes were in Kerry North and Cork North-Central, both 92.79 per cent.
The average turnout, 56.26 per cent, on such a major constitutional question was the only disappointment in Friday's referendum. It falls behind the turnout on other important referendums in history: the enactment of the 1937 Constitution - 75.8 per cent, EEC membership - 70.9 per cent, the two attempts to change PR, the two divorce amendments, the 1992 abortion referendums and the Maastricht Treaty.
Responding to the referendum results, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said yesterday that he would like to see Sinn Fein working in the executive of the Northern Assembly.
Acknowledging that he, and other leaders, had called on Sinn Fein to state that the war was over, he said yesterday that "maybe there are other ways of saying it. I think people have made up their minds that this is the way things are going but they are worried about the surrender element of it. The IRA has made a statement saying that they want the political process to work. We need a little bit more to say that the process is leading us to a road of no return".
When talking about decommissioning, it really had to be across the board, he added.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Bruton, hailed the result as a tremendous day for all of the people on this island. The Yes vote, North and South, marked the beginning of a new and more generous phase in Irish history.
"Nationalists are showing, by agreeing to change the Constitution, acceptance of the unionist right to be British. In turn, the unionists, in agreement to North/South bodies, are showing respect for the nationalist allegiance of a large number of people", he said.
The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said the massive endorsement of the agreement by a majority of the people on the island would usher in a new kind of politics for Ireland. The political future of Northern Ireland would be determined by consent and not by coercion. The scale of the vote was a clear signal that there was no place for violence in the political process.
The leader of Democratic Left, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, said that the people of Ireland, north and south, had chosen peace over conflict, and opted for progress rather than stalemate. "We must remember that while the agreement received overwhelming approval in the Republic, a body of political opinion in Northern Ireland has voted No. They must not be cut off from the process and efforts must be made to address their fears and concerns. This can best be done by the fair and effective implementation of the new structures and by a willingness on all sides to address difficulties that have yet to be overcome, such as decommissioning," he said. The president of the Workers' Party, Mr Tom French, said that the massive Yes vote was a clear signal from the people of both parts of Ireland that they wanted no more of the sterile politics and terror campaigns of the last 30 years.
The president of Republican Sinn Fein, Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, said that his party would continue to campaign for British disengagement from Ireland and for a new four-province federation with maximum devolution to local level.