Opinion

Deaglán de Bréadún: Brexit is turning into a nightmare divorce with Ireland stuck in the middle

Deaglán de Bréadún
Deaglán de Bréadún Deaglán de Bréadún

I can still recall the shock of waking up that Sunday morning in August 1997 to hear that Diana, Princess of Wales, and her partner, Dodi Fayed, had been killed in a car-crash in a Paris tunnel.

At the time, I was reporting from Belfast on the peace process, which had become big news again with the resumption of the IRA ceasefire. But everything took second place that week to the stark demise of the glamorous but ill-starred Princess Di, whose story began as a fairy-tale and finished-up as tragedy.

As it happens, the anniversary of her death coincides with the passing of a dear friend of mine, who was so moved at the time that he travelled from Dublin to London to be among the crowd at her funeral.

Years before, when the troubles erupted in the north and it looked as if some nationalist areas were facing pogroms, my friend was one of a number of people from the south who set out for the border with the intention of providing assistance to those communities. The crisis eased however and he returned in one piece, although he was not the type to "keep the head down" and put his own safety ahead of the welfare of others.

The common element in both situations was a deep sense of humanity and compassion for the welfare of others, be they members of the British royal family or oppressed and underprivileged Irish nationalists whose lives were at risk.

Humanity is a virtue that is, or should be, common to us all. I marvel at reports of people who risk everything without hesitation and even give up their own lives to rescue total strangers from drowning.

There is a place for humanity on the political scene as well and we could do with more of it. The current anniversary of the Claudy bombing in which nine people were killed on July 31, 1972, is a stark reminder of where we were and the need to avoid going back there. It’s time to put petty politics aside and move forward together for the sake of the common good.

A major element of the common good right now is the need for a joint approach with the aim of converting Brexit from a total nightmare into just another bad dream. It does seem that some of the Brexiteers are learning that breaking away from the European Union is not as simple as they initially expected. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis summed up the British dilemma over EU membership in similar terms to the Eagles song “Hotel California”: they can check out whenever they like, but actually leaving is a lot more complicated.

On the implications for Ireland, Fianna Fáil TD Stephen Donnelly says: “Brexit has the potential to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, to fuel deprivation in the north, to provide a focus for dissident paramilitaries and to slow down progress on all-island economic sectors such as agriculture, energy and healthcare.”

Donnelly wants the north to be given “special status” to help protect it from the Brexit fallout. Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane uses similar language: “The only credible approach is for the north to be designated a special status within the EU and for the whole island of Ireland to remain within the EU together.”

This is not the position of the Irish government and foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney prefers the term "unique status" instead. He stresses the need to protect the gains of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement and describes the avoidance of a hard border between north and south as a "crucial objective".

Indeed the government in Dublin has been reported as proposing that the Irish Sea should become the post-Brexit border so that free trade on land could continue between north and south. The British are not happy with this suggestion by all accounts and neither is the Democratic Unionist Party. It doesn’t sound like a runner, but using surveillance cameras to cover a 310-mile stretch may not be appropriate either.

Meanwhile, former Irish diplomat Ray Bassett has warned that, if there is a hard Brexit and the relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU hits freezing-point, then Ireland will be forced to consider "Irexit" as a means of coping with the economic consequences.

Virtually the entire political and civil service establishment in the south would declare the prospect of following the UK out of the EU as unthinkable. But everything depends on the negotiations because this island, north and south, is like a youngster whose parents are about to be divorced: the child is strongly attached to both partners and a cold and frosty break-up will lead to serious complications, not least at a financial level.

@ddebreadun