As Brexit comes closer, British ignorance about Ireland becomes unforgivable

We can no longer deny the fact that British attitudes to the island of Ireland will affect negotiations

by Stephanie Boland / November 27, 2017 / Leave a comment

Kate Hoey’s Today interview should remind us how much feeling matters in the negotiations with Ireland. Photo: PA

How does one solve a problem like Northern Ireland? It’s a complex question—but one which the UK will soon have to summon up an answer to. So far, suggestions include an electronic border, a goods check at ports in to both the Republic of Ireland and the North, and—from republicans—the incorporation of the latter in to the former.

On the Today program, Brexiteer Kate Hoey insisted that no physical border would be necessary on the island, adding that, were such a thing to exist, Dublin would “have to pay for it.”

While Hoey didn’t quite go full “we’ll build a wall and make Leo Varadkar pay for it,” her follow-up remark asking why the Irish government doesn’t “actually become more positive about this and start looking at solutions with their closest neighbour” will have raised eyebrows in Dublin. (To say nothing of her suggestion that the Republic will likely follow Britain out of the EU.)

It is easy, from London, to underestimate the place of feeling in the negotiations. But although Hoey can claim that the UK is a “friend of the Republic of Ireland”—adding that “the relations have never been as good”—the sentiment is not necessarily reciprocated over the Irish Sea, where many feel that Britain must now lie in the bed they made in June 2016.

While the Spectator can point out the difficulties of Varadkar’s position in practice, his office can continue to claim they have been given little choice but to adopt it. One does not need to be a big fan of the Taoiseach to recognise that not only is the Republic of Ireland entitled to push back against problems which they had nothing to do with creating, but there is also growing resentment at their treatment by British politicians and press.

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The proposals, already rejected last year, are only the latest in a long line of failings...

Comments

phil
November 27, 2017 at 14:12
kate hoey's stupefyingly ignorant and uneducated comments regarding the intra-irish border are indicative of the tragic fact that absolutely nothing at all about brexit has been thought through in any shape or form whatsoever - zero, null, niet. the uk has chosen to leave not only the single market, but also the eea/customs union and as such, upon brexit-day, it will attain the internationally-recognised status of a third country. thus, as it will be subject to wto rules, parity and equal access to all signatories' markets will apply to all nations trading under wto terms - which means that access to your markets needs to be the same for all. if there is a lax, open border between the uk and the republic of ireland with minimal controls or enforcement, then china or south africa or mexico will be entitled to ask for the very same treatment for their goods entering the uk, which they will do by applying to the wto court for a ruling. the wto court will inevitably uphold such a complaint and will rule that either the uk gives the same kind of easy access across its borders to other nations, or it brings down the hard border with the republic in order to ensure fairness in trading acess for other nations. so no, it won't be the eu bringing down the hard border in ireland, it will be the uk through its unilateral action of leaving the eu's structures. ah brexit, if ever there was a more staggering confederacy of dunces, i have yet to find it . . .
Michael Martin
December 3, 2017 at 17:22
Are 'our' politicians still so infected by an imperial image of the Britain they so enjoy keeping in a strangle-hold, that they would have allowed the IRA to wreak similar havoc on the rest of Britain rather than just let NI go, to take whatever course it could negotiate? We were about to do that over 100 years ago, before it was again turned into a pawn over some wholly unconnected issue. I'm not expert enough to discover whether NI is a net contributor to the UK's finances or needs subsidising by taxpayers on the mainland. If the latter, why not have a referendum on whether those taxpayers would prefer to withdraw the subsidy and leave it to our cast-offs and the Republic to decide on how they will co-exist? This is the only solution that makes sense to me, the majority of whose family in the last 130 years lived in or came from either side of this disputed border.
Michael Martin
December 3, 2017 at 17:27
Sorry. "similar havoc on the rest of Britain to that of IS etc in the Middle East"