Dublin — IN 1998, for the first time since partition in 1921, the people of Ireland, North and South, joined in voting for change when they took part in referendums on the Good Friday Agreement. That agreement was founded on the democratic principle that the people of Ireland, North and South, should determine their own future.

The Good Friday Agreement replaced decades of conflict and injustice with a deal that put power-sharing and equality at the heart of government. The agreement was endorsed by a resounding 71 percent of voters in the North and a remarkable 94 percent in the South of Ireland. History was made, and work began to establish all-island institutions that for nearly two decades have secured peace and justice in Ireland.

That achievement and legacy is now at risk. In last month’s referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union, the citizens of the North of Ireland voted by 55 percent to 45 percent to remain within the union. As voters in the North did in the 1998 referendum, Irish nationalists, British unionists and others found common cause.

In Scotland, too, a strong majority of citizens voted to remain within the European Union, while more people in England and Wales voted to leave. That was their right, but because the total votes narrowly went in favor of Brexit, by 52 percent to 48 percent, the British government will now seek to drag the North of Ireland out of the European Union — based on the preference of voters in England and Wales.