On the Edge Dublin in 1998 in the Good Friday Agreement Pressive Form of Power Sharing Which Had – Subsequently Endorsed by the DUP in the St Lasted for Several Years

28 BORDERS here is no doubt that Brexit has destabil- The unionists, on the other hand, dislike the ized Northern Irish politics. In 2015, backstop. They say they realized a deal with TNorthern Ireland had a stable if unim- On the edge Dublin in 1998 in the Good Friday Agreement pressive form of power sharing which had – subsequently endorsed by the DUP in the St lasted for several years. The Catholic popula- Andrews Agreement of 2006 – in opening up tion was growing but the nationalist vote – Brexit and the Irish border a new relationship with Dublin which is con- rooted in that community – was not. There sensual and “bottom up”. Now they are con- were other major issues – disagreement over fronted by a top-down deal giving Dublin the public role of the Irish language, and the PAUL BEW death of Stephen Restorick, the last British sol- influence in the north to which their consent is fallout from the renewable heating scandal dier to die near the border in 1997 just before essentially irrelevant. (“cash for ash”) which is not alone the Demo- When the Irish Foreign Minister, Simon the return of the IRA ceasefire. The British Neutral observers – writers like Newton cratic Unionist Party’s responsibility but has Coveney, says that there can be no checks were exasperated by this claim and pointed out Emerson and Andy Pollak – acknowledge that hit that party harder than most. But above all, anywhere on the island of Ireland he is hugely that it referred only to IRA attacks in the imme- the “mapping exercise” which supposedly it is Brexit which has reignited the argument popular. Of course, there are police checks on diate vicinity of the border. The British pointed underpins the backstop is a thin piece of about the clash of two great “rights” – the foreigners trying to enter the Dublin labour out that the IRA trained mostly in the Republic work. They also acknowledge both sides can unionist and nationalist case in Ulster – as market on cross-border public transport but and received most of its weapons from the make a case as a defender of the Good Friday W. F. Monypenny called it in his classic The everyone knows that he means there can be no south. But there is a substance of truth in Agreement. Again, there is a kind of consensus Two Irish Nations published in 1913. checks for Irish people. Cosgrave’s reply: the root cause of violence in that the island economy – a core concept in Brexit has reignited the border issue – in Ireland rightly believes that even a soft the north arose out of the indigenous clash the withdrawal agreement – exists only in principle, because the EU is desperate to sus- Brexit will do it economic harm. A hard Brexit between the two communities in the north. agrifood. Everyone now appears to accept that tain the integrity of the single market while the endangers, it is widely believed, tens of thou- Today, however, it is the Republic which special and unusual measures will be required “peace process” forbids the normal checks for sands of jobs on the island. In short, Ireland emphasizes above all the potential role of the to protect this. border controls which normally do that work. believes it has no choice but to throw its lot in border in destabilizing the peace process. Leo The most acute problem here is the after- So a new solution has to be found and it is that with the European Union as a whole. Above Varadkar circulated a photograph of a 1970s math of a no deal Brexit. The UK has said that Northern Ireland, in effect, remains in signifi- all, it has to preserve its position as a favoured attack on a border installation as proof that the in no circumstance will it introduce checks on cant ways in the EU without any democratic destination for foreign direct investment even “backstop” was necessary to avoid a return to goods flowing from the Irish Republic. Some representation in that European political con- if that is to the detriment of the agricultural sec- the bad old days. Amazingly, one of the officials doubt that this can be maintained but it is poss- figuration. A difficult enough issue in itself tor, no longer hegemonic in Irish society. The close to Simon Coveney was quoted as saying ible that the UK can maintain this position made more fraught by the differing imagina- early direct talks between Belfast and Dublin that a dissident IRA attack near the border had longer than the EU on the other side. In that tive universes of the two communities on the officials in technical matters were stopped the effect of cooling Boris Johnson’s rhetoric on case, the EU will have to have some sort of subject of the partition. More precisely, the under the government of Enda Kenny – even Brexit. It should be noted that Irish opposition “hard” border on the island of Ireland to pro- problem is that the two Irish traditions have before Leo Varadkar took over – and there has leaders strongly denounced this comment. tect the integrity of the single market. In other completely different narratives on the border. been no public criticism of that decision. There is also a problem of perception as this words, the prospect of the backstop will have For the nationalist community it offends, in On the other side of the communal divide, is made worse by the limited interaction brought about exactly the situation it was principle, against Ireland’s nationalist unity Professor Henry Patterson in his authoritative between the high politics of Westminster and intended to avert. That is why Angela Merkel and, for example, tends to cut towns on either book Ireland’s Violent Frontier (2013) pro- grass roots tensions in Northern Ireland. The asked Barnier for a fall-back plan to replace the side of the line from their hinterland. The ease vides the historical experience which underpins absence of any SDLP representatives in West- backstop in March – but we have not heard of crossing it which has been a fact of life for a different view of what is at stake. Patterson minster has meant that the tedium of the what it is – and that is why there has been decades now seems to reduce this evil; any points out the border security installations did weekly Belfast/London journey which made increasing talk about a time-limited backstop possible change of status can only lead to dis- not exist in 1969 – they had to be built to deal say, Robert Bradford, MP for South Belfast, as the obvious benign compromise between ruption of normal social and family activity. with the fact that the IRA campaign, which had and Gerry Fitt, MP for West Belfast, unlikely the EU and UK. Worse, this local inconvenience is a result of begun as an urban campaign in Belfast and friends no longer operates in that way. SDLP Lucinda Creighton, Ireland’s Europe Min- the whim of the British electorate. Derry, was pushed out to other parts of North- and Unionist representatives have less contact ister from 2011 to 2013, has suggested a five- There has been much talk of a danger to the ern Ireland after the British Army’s Operation than in earlier, darker years. The moderate year limit to the backstop: “A lot can happen in peace process as a result. Michel Barnier, the Motorman, which reclaimed the no go areas. nationalist SDLP is convinced that the DUP five years which might change the complexion EU’s chief negotiator, very early on in the The border fortifications were built to try to has an “aggressive no deal strategy”. But in of Brexit and British politics entirely … Stick- Brexit fiasco urged the Irish to campaign on control the Provos’ use of the border as a means fact the majority of DUP MPs have had no such ing rigidly to our current position could well this basis in the other twenty-six capitals of to bring in men and explosives to Northern strategy in Westminster. They expected a lead to the outcome that the withdrawal agree- the EU. It has proved to be a successful strat- Ireland from the relatively safe haven of the longer extension than the one granted by the ment was supposed to avert – a border between egy. Nationalists say they have been stripped, Republic, to escape to after attacks in the north EU and they expected too that Parliament as a North and South, a return to political unrest against their will, of their EU citizenship and as somewhere to plan operations and manu- whole was moving towards a softer Brexit. For and violence and economic devastation for which made it easier to tolerate partition. The facture explosives and weapons. the time being, these calculations – shared by people across Ireland”. Ireland’s current various acts of mitigation – for example, offer- In 1988 the British Army believed that ten many – are not operative, but the DUP is per- Europe Minister was quickly out of the traps to ing Irish citizens superior rights in the UK of the IRA’s main Active Service Units were fectly aware that even the briefest no deal reject her predecessor’s argument. labour market, required as recently as 2010–14 based in the Republic. The Irish state had used Brexit will have some costs which will be laid Remainers have eloquently argued that but not required today as Ireland’s economy the British desire for security cooperation to at their door. That is why on the floor of the Brexit and a no deal Brexit, in particular, have surges again, have barely registered.

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