Brexit, Northern Ireland, political issues, border management, Belfast Agreement, European Union, United Kingdom, Good Friday Agreement, Stormont, tensions, negotiations
In Northern Ireland, separation has been part of the history of the nation since its conquest of the Normans in 1169, as it paved the way for the later British involvement in Ireland. Today, the thorny issue that threatens the country is Brexit and its implications on the dividing border and vulnerable politics of Northern Ireland and the Republic. These old border issues and Irish politics have always been delicate, but as many political agreements have been established for political cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Republic, it is assumed that Brexit threatens the long-term political endeavor that has taken place since the Good Friday Agreement, either by pushing for unification too soon or by pushing for too hard a separation. However, continuous updates are still needed as the situation has progressed rapidly in the course of this year, following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on 31 January 2020. Previous work has therefore often dealt with the topic of Irish politics and the border until the United Kingdom officially left the EU and has not been able to contrast prior Brexit proposals and agreements to what was eventually implemented afterward. Moreover, there is still a considerable controversy surrounding the impact of Brexit on Ireland, which can only be hypothesized in the light of recent events.
[...] Accessed 6 Nov Gormley-Heenan, Cathy, and Arthur Aughey. "Northern Ireland and Brexit: Three effects on `the border in the mind'". Sage journals, vol no June 2017, pp. 497-511. Peyronel, Valérie. "Northern Ireland: Devolution as an Electoral Issue in the 2015 UK General Election." Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, vol. [...]
[...] Conclusion This paper gave an account of the various implications of the border in the politics of Northern Ireland and the Republic, which presented Brexit as a double-edged sword that could either deepen, politically and geographically, the already existing gap between the Unionists and Nationalists and their respective political parties by establishing a hard border, or eventually reunite them and narrow this gap. However, evidence has shown that the later likelihood of a united Ireland is very low, and that Brexit would rather either push a unification too quickly or too hard a separation. Future studies on the current issue are therefore required to elucidate how negotiations on the implementation of European or British legislation on the internal Irish border will be conducted and whether or not an agreement that satisfies both Northern Ireland and the Republic is conceivable. [...]
[...] Brexit would also pose a direct challenge to the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement, an internationally binding treaty and undermine all-Ireland co-operation." Or pushing for a united Ireland? However, while some see Brexit as a threat because it would reopen old wounds and remove any possibility of a united Ireland, others believe that Brexit may actually be needed to achieve unification. Indeed, while Kearny Declan (part of Sinn Féin, a Nationalist who supports the European Union) believes that Brexit is a threat, Jack Duffin, a former member of the Irish Republican Army, supports Brexit and even believes that it is what will make unification possible (although the previous figures have shown that a large majority of Republicans and Nationalists would prefer to remain part of the European Union). [...]
[...] The main thrust of this proposition was the Customs Unions, which could be paired with the Single Market of the European Union to ensure an "invisible border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic. In his briefing, Andrew Gilmore explains that Customs Unions and the Single Market of the European Union are two distinct entities: "The first is an agreement in which Member States and participating countries agree to remove restrictions on mutual trade in goods and apply a common system of tariffs and import quotas to non-members. [...]
[...] In fact, this peace process formed major political institutions to ensure that the relationship between Northern Ireland, the Republic, and the United Kingdom was represented in this divided country. According to Carine Berberi, in her article "Northern Ireland: Is Brexit a Threat to the Peace Process and the Soft Irish Border?" the Good Friday Agreement has brought: power-sharing, including a shared Northern Ireland Executive and a shared Assembly in Stormont aimed at guaranteeing fair representation in political debates for both communities; the principle of consent which affirms the legitimacy of the aspiration to a United Ireland while recognizing the current desire of the majority in Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom; the removal from the Irish constitution of a territorial claim to Northern Ireland; the reform of the justice and security systems and a series of equality and human rights measures." In other words, although this agreement was not a victory for either Northern Ireland or the Republic, it had the merit of bringing peace to the country, even if only temporarily, in the same way as Partition did. [...]
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