Negotiations for British withdrawal from the EU have finished their first week without any clarity about what is going to happen in Ireland when Brexit comes into force in March 2019. In their Press Conference, both the EU and British negotiators used the same phrase: ‘the clock is ticking.’ Monsieur Barnier says that they are concerned to preserve the Good Friday Agreement -but he is not saying how that can be done if there is going to be a customs border running through the island of Ireland from Derry to Newry-a border that was imposed by the British when Ireland was partitioned in 1920. Surely that will prevent freedom of travel and the free movement of people within Ireland. These are two basic components of the Good Friday Agreement.
The people in the six counties voted last June (2016) to stay in the EU. That democratic vote must be respected. It is in the best interests of the people of the north and of the whole island to maintain our close ties with the EU. It is in the best interests of preserving the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement and the human rights legislation so important to people whose human rights were denied for years. It is in the best interests of all the people of Ireland -socially, economically and politically –to be united as one island with the EU.
Anybody who has lived in a border area –especially the farmers and business people-will know all about the hardship that is caused when governments insist on controlling the movement of people and goods. Countries with borders all over the world experience these hardships. Many of us certainly experienced them in the years since partition and most painfully in the years 1968-1998. During this period we were subjected to intense scrutiny and harassment by British soldiers and the RUC at checkpoints around the border. There were also Customs checks during some of these years. We were well checked going about our daily business.
If the British Tory government insists on the north accepting the Leave vote, it will result in a border of some kind with the Republic which will restrict the free movement of people and goods. That will necessarily have many negative implications for all the people living here and as a result for the economy of the whole island. The future is uncertain. One thing is certain that, outside of the EU, the north and the border areas north and south will suffer. Unless the north can maintain its ties with the EU, it will lose the grants for peace-building and peace programmes. The farmers will lose their CAP payments which are estimated to make up 80% of their incomes. Business will suffer and economic investment is doubtful in a region that is cut off from everywhere. Students will not be able to benefit from the freedom of access to universities in the EU and the Erasmus exchange scheme will be ended. Patients in the Republic will find it more difficult to access northern hospitals.
It is sickening to hear representatives of the DUP talking about how good Brexit will be for the people in the 6 counties when the people know only too well that it is a very bad deal. I am encouraged by the views expressed by some Unionists farmers and business people who live near the border. Many of them voted to Remain in the EU last June. These hard headed business people know full well that Brexit, when implemented, will be for the Irish people, the biggest disaster since Partition in 1920. They are not taken in by the unionist propaganda.
As the negotiations have finished their first week it is now becoming very clear that Brexit will mean regress instead of progress. All will be losers. It will be bad for the people of Ireland as a whole and especially for the people living in border regions. There must a determined effort by the Dublin Government to support the call from BCAB, Irish MEPs and many others for special status for the north that would protect the right of the Irish citizens to free travel and free trade within the island of Ireland and within the EU. There can be no return to a border -hard or soft. The only border should be one in the middle of the Irish Sea. A return to a border would be a serious set-back for the peace process. The clock is ticking…alright
Looking forward to leaving the EU in 2019-UK joined as one nation and will leave as one nation
Rep of Ire will soon follow us out the door
French and Germans calling time on their 12.5% Corporation Tax regime
This will only be able to be maintained outside EU
As for Joe-sílim gur cheart dó cúrsaí a ghlacadh níos réidhe
God love you wishful thinking.
Good article Joe and I still find it hard to believe that the vote by the English and Welsh on Brexit has in actual fact means all of the Atlantic Isles will be worse off in everyway simply because of people who dislike ‘swarthy’ types.
You think 17.4 million people voted for Brexit because of Racism?
Ps. How successful was the Remain strategy of hysterically shrieking “Racist” at anyone who dared to vote Out during the Brexit debates?
Have you learned nothing?
Huge Celt, who said they voted because of racism? Some of them would have but a lot more would have voted because of xenophobia. Why else would you self-destruct your economy and business interests?
Oh right.
So, 17.4 million people voted Out on the basis of either Racism, or it’s equally ugly cousin Xenophobia.
That’s it.
That’s your analysis.
Sin é.
The English must all have turned into.goose-stepping Nazis,
Case closed.
Let’s just ignore the post-referendum analyses which state that Immigration was a non-issue for nearly half of the electorate – NB. not just a bit of an issue; not just a minor issue; but a complete non-issue.
And let’s also ignore the inconvenient truth that the Remain campaign was led by a Prime Minister that referred to refugees as “swarms” – a PM that actively blocked the Dubs Amendment to leave nearly 1,000 child refugees languishing in squalour in Calais.
And let’s not mention that the very same PM was busy deporting refugees out of Fortress Europe in clear violation of internationally-binding commitments – a policy so vicious, so barbarous, that Medecins Sans Frontiers refused to have anything to do with it, at an enormous financial cost to themselves.
No, no, lets just forget all about that, and just continue to hysterically shriek “Racist”at anyone who dared to vote Out, from a moral high-ground that doesn’t exist.
That’s clearly a winning strategy.
I wonder how it turned out….
Xenophobia is what I am shrieking (not really I couldn’t give a shit why the British people voted exit). Most of the reasons I seen during the campaign were based on xenophobia- the Brits hate the French and Germans. “Immigration wasn’t an issue for half the electorate”- lol most of those voted remain.
I want the Irish exit from the Uk and back into Europe. Brexit makes that more likely. This is going to be disastrous for for Britain. So huge Celt why do you think they voted to leave?
There were 17.4 million different reasons why people voted for Brexit – most quote from a menu of Democracy, Sovereignty, Economy, the Greek experience, Immigration, European Army etc etc. Some are well-founded, some are nonsense.
But the most common individual reason was Austerity, alongside the inferred desire to give the Elite, and all the political parties who advocated the status quo, a bloody nose.
It is no accident that in the 12 months that have passed that the UKIP voted has shredded from 4 million to 500k, whilst the most left-wing Labour programme since Attlee attracted almost 13 million votes.
Where did all those Xenophobes and Racists evaporate to?
It is now an inescapable fact that England didn’t lurch to the Right, it has lurched decisively to the Left, and that confounds the media orthodoxy that you have been listening to.
Learn to read between the lines.
“England’s difficulties remain Irelands opportunities”
Now, I would have thought that as a nationalist party Sinn Fein would have seen the Brexit referendum as their opportunity to manufacture their own crisis in the 6 Counties.
Indeed, the party which opposed EEC membership, the Lisbon Treaty (twice), the Nice Treaty (twice), and the Fiscal Compact, should have been a dead cert to shout a resounding NO to the evolving EU superstate.
Indeed Gerry Adams claimed in 2012 “We didn’t fight the British for 500 years just to hand power to Brussels”.
Those MEPs – he means Sinn Fein MEPs, by the way – that Father Joe refers to are persistently on record excoriating the direction of travel of the EU and the mass impoverishment that the whole project is delivering.
But in one enormous flip-flop, Sinn Fein are now the moat Europhilic party on this island.
Now, “Leaving the EU would be a disaster”.
Which begs the obvious questions “Why has there been such a dramatic turn-around, and why doesn’t Sinn Fein even acknowledge it?”……
I fear Father Joe has lost the run of himself with his Chicken Licken doom-and-gloom prophesies.
I would like to ask him if the €64 Billion Bankers Bailout foisted on the 26 Counties and underpinned by the threat of “financial bombs under Dublin” from our old muckers in Brussels, may also have been considered a “bad deal for Ireland”.
Or was it just plain old financial terrorism.
I would also like to ask Father Joe if he has actually read the Proclamation – the bit where Irelands sovereignty is declared to be “indefeasible” and “unfettered” – and if so, how does that equate to being dictated to by an largely unelected caste of Eurocrats and Bureaucrats
I would also like to ask Father Joe….which political leader said in 2012 “We didn’t fight the British for 500 years just to hand power across to Brussels”, but by 2017 that message has morphed into “Leaving the EU will be a disaster”?
What exactly changed in the meantime?
In anticipation of the much abused response of “Ahh, critical engagement” etc, can I just point out two salient facts.
1/ David Cameron led the 2nd biggest EU economy (5th, maybe 6th, in the World), to “critically engage” with the EU over some very minor tweaks and reforms, and was sent packing like a troublesome schoolboy.
What chance does Father Joe think Ireland would have in influencing the EU power-brokers?
2/ I hadn’t realised that there were actually THREE options on the Referendum ballot paper – IN, OUT, and CRITICALLY ENGAGE.
I personally find it bizarre that a self-proclaimed Irish nationalist such as Father Joe would recommend slavish subservience to anyone, nevermind am institution that has form for financially enslaving our grandchildren.
For all his doom-laden predictions of Armageddon, Father Joe misses, either deliberately or accidentally, at least one crucial point – these militarised borders that he predicts won’t be foisted upon Ireland by Britain – they will be foisted upon Ireland by his beloved EU.
I suggest Fr. Joe writes a strongly-worded letter of protest to Michel Barnier in his entirely unelected, entirely unaccountable, and entirely unrepresentative role as Irelands plenipotentiary.
And then Fr Joe should at least have the decency to scratch his head in wonderment at how Irelands sovereignty has been sold so very very cheaply.
And how he himself has become such an enthusiastic cheerleader for that usurption.
Well said. The fawning to the EU is as stomach churning as the fawning to britland.
That’s a lot of anger to carry about.
@ Stephen.
Feel free to highlight the words/phrases which you perceive as “Anger”.
Incidentally, the more accurate characterisation I would put on it would be “Quizzically Amused”.
I have been puzzled, intrigued and entertained as Unionism places it’s own noose round it’s own neck….whilst at the same time Nationalism has prostrated itself to a remote, unelected, bureaucratic elite.
“Neither King nor Kaiser, but Barnier”.
James Connolly would be apoplectic.
Ps. You are also at liberty to play the ball and not the man by answering any of my questions…..the floor is yours….
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