was a most extraordinary Easter gift.

An unprecedented peace agreement, thrashed out over months of arduous bargaining, promises a stable new political structure for the British-ruled province. The accord could presage the fading of open warfare between Protestant and Catholic extremists that has taken more than 3,200 lives over the past 30 years.

In the broadest sense, the mere fact of an agreement represents a built-up revulsion and grief over the bombings and gun battles that had long displaced political discourse in Ulster. All but the most die-hard extremists on both sides had yearned for some sort of peace, but it was the extremists who had long held the high cards, and it was they who had to be marginalised before moderates could hope for a compromise.

In the immediate sense, though, the Belfast agreement reflects the personal involvement -- for the first time -- of the top political leaders on both sides. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, each of whom had invested much political capital in the search for an agreement, went to Belfast for personal involvement in the final days of negotiations. Their commitment was crucial to gaining hard-liners' support for the accord.

Perhaps the most critical figure behind the talks' success was their chairman, the patient, fair and apparently tireless former US Senate majority leader, George Mitchell. By persuasion and applying reason to a conflict from which reason had largely fled, Mr. Mitchell managed to bring Catholic and Protestant factions together.

The agreement, which must yet be approved by voters in Ulster and the Irish Republic, would establish a provincial legislature representing both religious groups. It also sets up a north-south council that is to forge informal ties between the province and the republic.

From their start two years ago, the peace talks on Northern Ireland were a heady brew that mingled suspicion, sectarian passions, pragmatism and hope.

All parties at the table understood from the outset that even modest success would demand uncomfortable compromise. Catholic and Protestant parties alike knew not only that they must display flexibility but also take stands firm enough to satisfy their respective constituencies.

On several occasions, the Belfast talks nearly foundered in trying to meet those two conflicting objectives. Those near-misses were hardly surprising.

For most of this century, Catholic and Protestant had waged furious battle for dominance in Northern Ireland. To fervent Irish nationalists, who argued that the northern province belonged as part of the Irish Republic, Britain's continued rule there was an outrage. To pro-British Unionists, reflecting the province's Protestant majority, any tilt toward Dublin was anathema.

In any event, that a solution to this dilemma may be coming into view is grounds for great joy, in Ireland, Britain -- and in the United States, which has such close ties with those islands.