A FORMER SDLP politician has suggested a hard border will "prompt mass, non violent, demonstrations against it, on a scale not seen since the Civil Rights mobilization 50 years ago".
Hugh Logue told a Civil Rights commemoration event in Co Derry that "people are much more exercised by a hard border than by Stormont or the return of the Assembly or Executive".
The former high-profile civil rights' demonstrator who took part in key marches, including a famous march in Burntollet which saw protesters attacked by angry loyalists was speaking at the Seamus Heaney Centre in Bellaghy last night.
Asked for parallels and lessons for today at the commemoration event, Mr Logue spoke about the "prospect of a hard border in Ireland arising from Brexit".
"A hard border will prompt mass, non violent, demonstrations against it, on a scale not seen since the Civil Rights mobilization 50 years ago," he said.
"People are much more exercised by a hard border than by Stormont or the return of the Assembly or Executive.
"Be under no illusion citizens north and south will take to the streets against a hard border. There will be organised public outcry led by the common people."
He added that those who voted for the Good Friday Agreement "will make their voices heard".
"They will not permit the British government to resile from its international obligation," he said.
"In the event of a hard Brexit, such will be the withdrawal of consent from government in Northern Ireland, it may well become ungovernable. It will be a mass movement.
"It will be cross party and no party, like the original Civil Rights Association."
