The six counties voted by 56% to 44% to Remain in the EU. People believed that apart from the economic advantages of belonging to the EU there were many advantages for the creating of a peaceful and reconciled Ireland. That is, and will be for many years, a work in progress.
There was also the advantage of belonging to the European Human Rights convention and being accountable to European law. We are told that we must accept the overall UK vote in favour of Brexit since N. Ireland is part of the UK. That means that there will be a customs border within Ireland between the south and the six counties of northeast of Ireland. This is surely going to undermine the Good Friday Agreement which of course the DUP only half heartedly accepted anyway. And, as Donal Lavery has pointed out elsewhere, the DUP only accepted it when the British proposed joint authority as the alternative. Brexit will mean a return to the bad old days of a border running through our small island –this time a border separating the European union from the UK –with customs posts.
The Northeast of Ireland is not part of the UK in the same way that London or Cornwall or even Wales or Scotland. The Northeast of Ireland is, always was and always will be part of Ireland and its future development as an economic region depends on being able to trade freely with the rest of the island. It is in a unique situation politically especially after the Belfast Agreement in 1998. The only way the citizens who live there can go forward is on the basis of equality/ parity of esteem as envisaged in the Belfast Agreement and on the basis of close relations with the rest of the island of Ireland. Dr Paisley seemed to accept that. The DUP, under Arlene, refuse to accept this.
If the Tories win this election, we in Ireland are once again at the mercy of right wing and die-hard unionists who are not really interested in parity of esteem. The proposed cuts will certainly hit the poor -loyalist and nationalist. But it will be a major political set-back in that it will be an assertion by the British government that it still has a strategic interest in holding on to this part of Ireland. That contradicts the words of a former Tory Secretary of State, Peter Brooke, that the British government had no longer’ any selfish or strategic interest’ in the north.
If the British Tory government is re-elected and is determined to impose a border of some kind from Newry to Derry, then the Dublin government, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, will be obliged to demand Special Status for the northeast region of Ireland. They should have been demanding this before now. It would allow the north to remain within the EU and it would do away with the need for a land border. It would protect the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement and would force the Tories to stick to their stated principle that they have no selfish or strategic interest in the north of Ireland.
Such a solution offers many more advantages in terms of promoting the well-being of all the citizens of Ireland. This view has growing support throughout Ireland. In the light of Brexit can some unionists be persuaded that this is the best way forward for all the people living on this island?
A victory for Jeremy Corbyn and Labour –which is now becoming increasingly likely- offers the prospect of a more realistic approach to Ireland’s difficulties in the wake of Brexit.
(The newly formed Human Rights Watch in conjunction with Border Communities Against Brexit will be holding a discussion about the Human Rights implications of Brexit in Conway Mill, Belfast on Monday June 12 at 7.00pm(sharp). Guest Speaker: Niall Murphy, Human Rights Lawyer
Everybody Welcome/ Fáilte roimh gach Duine)
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