In the week leading up to St Patrick’s Day, a series of events took place in Washington to highlight the impact of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, not on peace, but on cancer research and cancer care on the island of Ireland. In the mid to late 1990s cancer outcomes in Northern Ireland were the worst in the UK and the Republic of Ireland wasn’t much better. The first 20 years of the consortium led to a significant increase in both the quantity and quality of joint cancer research activities.