So which is it? Are the British simply intent on tying up a few loose ends in the Northern Ireland protocol, or are they intent on removing any trace of a border or border checks between two parts of the UK?
There was a government representative on BBC Radio Four this morning saying it was a matter of tying up a few loose ends. Unionists would prefer it was the the removal of any checks between the north and Britain, since this would take them from the ledge of the UK and somewhere closer to the warm breast of Mother Britain.
Let’s assume for a moment that Britain goes back to the idea of no checks in the Irish Sea and a hard border in Ireland. We know in our bones that a hard border would carry with it the potential for serious and sustained violence.
Anyone, nationalist, republican or unionist who thinks otherwise is deceiving themselves.But if the checks between Britain and our charming little stateen are non-existent, where will the border with the EU appear? The obvious answer seems to be along a land border in Ireland.
And who would build that dangerous border? Well, ever since its inception almost 100 years ago, the border has been a British creation, showing where British jurisdiction ends and the Republic of Ireland (in effect the EU) begins. But might the Brits decide this time around to let the EU build it? After all, the UK doesn’t mind if there’s flourishing trade between the north and the south of Ireland. They’ve got bigger fish to fry. But the EU would care, because it needs to be clear where its trade boundaries and jurisdiction extend to. It wouldn’t want British goods flowing from Britain to our little stateen and from there unobstructed into the south of Ireland, aka a part of the EU.
So there is a logic that suggests it would be the EU who would build the new border and it would be Irish forces from the south who would man it. Would violent republicanism attack them? If they did, there’d be a sizeable number of Irish people, especially in the south, who would disown them.
Things could start getting messy from this point on.
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