Opinion

Deaglán de Bréadún: As we face a damaging Brexit, absence of Stormont is a problem

Stormont remains mothballed as Brexit gets ever closer
Stormont remains mothballed as Brexit gets ever closer Stormont remains mothballed as Brexit gets ever closer

Oscar Wilde said that the American novelist Henry James wrote fiction “as if it were a painful duty”.

The quote comes to mind as I turn my attention to the unavoidable topic of Brexit. The United Kingdom is preparing to leave the European Union, but a tiny voice still whispers in my ear that the great British public will wake up some morning afterwards and scream: “My God, what have we done?”

It must be said, however, that the European Economic Community which the UK and Ireland joined on New Year’s Day 1973 was a lot different from the EU of today. It was generally referred to as the Common Market and there was relatively little indication of the strong integrationist agenda pursued later.

Every extended family has a member who doesn’t fit in with the dominant culture and that’s a fair description of the UK’s relationship with the EU. Britain and Ireland are both islands but Irish nationalists have a rather different attitude to mainland Europe, reflected historically in our patriotic ballad: “The French are on the say … they’ll be here without delay.”

That song is associated with the 1798 Rebellion, during which an expedition from France landed on the coast of County Mayo to assist in establishing an Irish republic. It was led by General Jean Humbert, who had a famous victory at Castlebar but ultimately ended up back in his home country.

Humbert came to mind as I observed the warm reception given to another Frenchman, the chief EU negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, when he arrived at the Dundalk Institute of Technology to talk about the issues last week.

This was part of the All-Island Civic Dialogue which has been organised by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade “in order to have the widest possible conversation about the implications of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union”.

A previous session held in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham was the last occasion I had a substantial conversation with the late Martin McGuinness, who was still deputy first minister in the Stormont executive. The Derryman was hopeful a pragmatic alliance could be formed with elements on the unionist side who might have voted for Brexit but would still be keen to minimise any negative consequences that flowed from it.

During a coffee-break at last week’s Dundalk event I hoped to have similar informal conversations with leading participants, but was politely told that the media would have to take their coffee at a press centre in the next building. You could say it was “a cold house for journalists” or maybe just a “hard border”. Another curious feature of the proceedings was that questions from the audience to Michel Barnier had to be put through a website that was accessible with a special code through your phone or laptop. What’s wrong with spontaneous interventions from the floor?

Barnier is an impressive character but he faces a huge challenge. Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has stressed the need for a final agreement by the June European summit in order to prevent a hard border on this island. If that is deferred until the October deadline set for an overall deal on future EU-UK relations, then the Irish government might well come under last-minute pressure to compromise.

There is much talk of the “backstop”, which has become the key item in the EU strategy. The basic concept is that, if there is no legal agreement which prevents a hard border, then Brussels wants the north to remain effectively within the EU single market and customs union. That would presumably mean a border in the Irish Sea, something the DUP and the British government, which of course depends on DUP support, could not accept.

Unless a way can be found to square the circle, the UK will “crash out” of the EU, without establishing a formal post-Brexit relationship and with unpredictable but potentially very damaging results all round. Responding in Dundalk to a suggestion that the EU was making a “land-grab” for the north of Ireland, Barnier said “technical and practical solutions” would have to be negotiated. Some would find that reassuring, others might see it as a disturbing foretaste of what Bertie Ahern warned about.

The absence of a devolved administration at Stormont in this context is very serious. The DUP doesn’t appear to have the capacity or inclination to compromise at present: who needs noisy Sinn Féín ministers at Stormont when you’re calling the shots at Westminster? There is a strong case for the republicans to go back into office, at least on a temporary basis, to resist the worst consequences of Brexit.

As General Humbert might have said, a tactical retreat is not the same as a defeat and can be the path to ultimate victory.

Ddebre1@aol.com