Belfast-born MEP John Cushnahan has said that he believes "ordinary" people on both sides of the border will not let the Good Friday Agreement die.
The former Alliance Party leader, who is MEP for Munster, recently announced his decision not to contest next year's European elections after 30 years in politics in Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Speaking from his Brussels office Mr Cushnahan, who has been based in Limerick since the late 1980s, said his biggest regret was his absence from Northern Ireland politics when the 1998 peace agreement was signed and the executive was appointed.
His decision to leave his west Belfast home was prompted by the dissolution of the assembly in 1986.
Mr Cushnahan had already served in politics for 15 years as a member of Belfast City Council and acting as general secretary of the Alliance Party from 1974-82 before taking over as party leader for three years from 1984.
The Catholic man from the Falls Road had faced a barrage of criticism from both sides of the political and religious divide in his role as Alliance leader.
With the end of the assembly, the father-of-five was left without an income and made the "very emotional" decision to quit politics.
An editorial in the Irish News paid tribute to his "political strength" and his party's ability to grasp the opportunity for peace and democracy provided by the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Political parties in the Republic expressed regret at Mr Cushnahan's decision to resign, with the then Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes saying he had played a "consistently courageous and imaginative role in politics in the north, a role that has entailed considerable sacrifice for himself and his family".
But Mr Cushnahan's political career was unexpectedly resurrected when he was approached by Mr Dukes and leading Fine Gael figures Finbarr Fitzpatrick and Richard Greene about representing the party in the European elections.
It was a tough decision for the self-professed "inner-city lad" – stay in Belfast and struggle to build a new career or move to Limerick, a mainly rural constituency, and throw his hat into the political ring once again.
However, Mr Cushnahan successfully reinvented himself as a southern representative, fighting three successful European campaigns and making his mark on the international political stage.
He has had various roles in the European Parliament but it is his work in helping war-torn countries in Asia to rebuild their democratic systems that has garnered him the respect of his colleagues and the international media.
Mr Cushnahan serves on the parliament's Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Defence and Common Security Policy Committee as a specialist in Asia.
He has monitored the situation in Hong Kong since it was handed over to China in 1997 and was appointed by Commissioner Chris Patten to act as an international observer during democratic elections in Sri Lanka in 2000 and 2001 and in Pakistan last year.
Throughout this year Mr Cushnahan has continued to be involved in the Sri Lanka peace process and he is rapporteur for the Third Generation Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Pakistan.
He said he believed that his own work Northern Ireland during the turbulent seventies and eighties helped to build a basis for his achievements in Asia.
Mr Cushnahan, who continues to watch proceedings at Stormont closely, said he was convinced that "ordinary" people in the north and south of Ireland had not given up on the Good Friday Agreement.
"I'm optimistic and I believe that Sinn Féin has a pivotal role to play.
"I believe that the violence has ended and that they are committed to the peace process but it is also about saying that the war is over. It is about them being completely involved in the democratic process. It is about joining the Policing Board.
"If this doesn't happen then they are strengthening the anti-agreement wing. The pro-agreement element of unionism needs this kind of commitment from Sinn Féin if they are win out over reactionary elements within unionism."
Mr Cushnahan said he remained "extremely grateful" to the people of Munster for backing his European campaigns over the past 15 years but that the death of two close friends had made him aware of his own mortality.
"I realised there are other priorities in life, that it was time to move on to new challenges. As an MEP I've spent at least four days away from home every week. In recent years I've become deeply involved in foreign policy and that's meant spending even more time away from home," he said.
But don't expect John Cushnahan to disappear from the world stage. He has vowed not to take up "gardening, fishing or golf" on his departure from European politics.
