Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian

When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote.

Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the EU (62% remain) and Northern Ireland itself had voted to remain with a 56% vote?

Clearly, there had to be a "hard border" somewhere between the EU and the UK either on the island of Ireland or down the North Sea if the hard-line Brexit lobby were to be satisfied. Therein lies the problem.

Any hard border on the island of Ireland, would immediately generate hostility due to the necessity for border control points, barriers and watchtowers which had been removed with the "Good Friday Agreement" of 1998  as part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. On the other hand, a border down the North Sea would create a "Two Tier" United Kingdom with Scotland, Wales and England having no access to the benefits available to Northern Ireland through their remaining to all intents and purposes as part of the EU.  

The "troubles" over recent nights have predominately been in the "loyalist" areas of Belfast, Derry, Newtownabbey, and Carrickfergus and are being attributed to "a small group of disaffected criminal elements". This however does not recognise that tensions have grown in "loyalist" communities, over post-Brexit trading arrangements, which it is claimed have created barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The trading arrangements resulting from Brexit, between Northern Ireland, The European Union and mainland United Kingdom have always been problematic with the historic cross border movements of goods and services between Ireland and Ulster. The cobbled together "Northern Ireland Protocol" satisfies none and has created more problems than it solved by, in effect, creating a border in the North Sea and a myriad of rules, forms, documents and administration to manage it. The Brexit negotiators in the form of Bozo Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen came away from their "discussions" with smug self-satisfied smirks on their faces telling the world that all was well and that they had fixed it. Only a few months later, the British government announced that they were unilaterally changing the Agreement and across the Chanel the EU announced that they were taking Britain to court over the issue. Complete and utter shambles which as usual satisfied the politicians, in the short term at least, but did nothing to resolve the underlying problem.  

There will never be a resolution to this Brexit problem, nor will there ever be a sustainable peace in Northern Ireland until politicians and people realise and accept that the partition of Ireland in 1921, was a fundamental error which has been compounded over the years (and is rooted in the past 300 years) and should be now be abandoned.

There must be a reunification of Ireland, with a nation governed by the Irish people. Should this not take place then people, on both sides of the Irish Sea for generations to come, will be tormented by the consequences.