When I am at dinner and the inevitable topic of the Belfast Agreement comes up a quote from Julius Caesar goes around in my head - "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is but shadows and misfortune." There is a time and a place for everything and at the moment there is an inexorable tide towards peace.
I don't want to take away from the wonderful work of John Hume and other negotiators but the timing was so right for an agreement, with Ireland in a state of cultural wisdom and advancement.
I will be voting for the agreement. Like sailors, I think we have to know how to go with the current. Some of us may not accept it but it is there and we must go with it.
Brendan Kennelly, poet
There is a degree of vulnerability in it all as we are essentially voting for an end to the stagnation and entrenchment which has dogged Irish history.
The Belfast Agreement could be an adventure in self-discovery for a lot of us; in understanding ourselves we will be forced into understanding the other. I have no problem with the amendments to Articles 2 and 3. They are part of the move forward and everyone should be capable of giving territory for the vision of a new Island.
I will be voting Yes.
Theo Dorgan, director Poetry Ireland
"Ireland without her people means nothing to me" - I think always of James Connolly's words, still apposite at this juncture in our history.
The proposed amendments to Articles 2 and 3 suggest, as possible, an Irish identity grounded in our common life on this island.
We might yet build a republic - small "r" - on this island, a republic of work and common cause, of justice for the poor, opportunity for the generous and unafraid.
To define the nation in terms of people rather than territory is a step in this direction.
I will be voting a sceptical Yes, sceptical only because I doubt the integrity of most of our politicians.