I was starting to get really worried! We breathe a collective sigh of relief …
Michael McLaughlin does not hide his emotion the announcement of a post-Brexit agreement between London and Brussels. This construction worker lives in Strabane, a small town from Northern Ireland located a few kilometers from the border with the Republic of Ireland, member country of the European Union. Do you see chaos in Dover and Calais? If Brexit had led to the reestablishment of customs posts on the island, it was for us!
With one detail: Our border is impossible to monitor.
Over 200 crossing points dot the roughly 500 kilometers between the British province and the Republic of Ireland. Roads used by 30,000 workers every day and nearly 177,000 trucks every month. Not surprisingly, then, that the North Irish voted overwhelmingly against Brexit in 2016: 56% wanted to stay in the European Union, compared to only 49% in the UK as a whole.
A still fragile peace …
Northern Ireland, the only British region to have a land border with an EU country (the Republic of Ireland) knew it had a front row seat, in the event of Brexit … The fear of the inhabitants? That controls on products transiting between the United Kingdom and Europe do not take place on this border, an area of tension during the 30 years of civil war that tore the country apart, killing more than 3,500 people before the peace, in 1998.
Also read. Brexit. “In Ireland, the threat to peace is real”
A still fragile peace, twenty years later, observes Michael McLaughlin. If a border was reestablished, he feared that the situation would degenerate. London and Brussels finally managed to avoid this scenario: by keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union and by moving the border… at sea! In other words, in the ports. We can say that the paramilitaries surrendered and destroyed the weapons, the residents have not lost their know-how. Our will to defend ourselves is written in us!
, comments Michael, relieved. In Strabane, post-traumatic stress is rife, and communities still suffer from the stigma of the conflict.
A boon for supporters of reunification
In twenty years, however, the separation between the two Ireland has become invisible. Only a sign indicating speeds in kilometers and bright yellow posters Say NO at the border
indicate its presence, on the A38 bridge which joins Donegal. Do you see this low wall?
, asks James Orr, manager of the petrol station and Dolan’s Nisa store, pointing to an insignificant stone wall. This is where customs were located during the war.
Also read. STORY. This is the story of a Brexit launched on a whim… How did we get there?
With 60% of its customers coming from the Republic of Ireland, Brexit could have signaled the end of its business. His colleague William Kenny remembers the days of controls. I assure you that long queues do not encourage motorists to consume!
They escaped a desaster
.
Paul Gallagher, local councilor, hoped for his part that Brexit would cause… as much damage as possible! If he has family in Lifford and regularly goes to the Irish side, where diesel is cheaper, delays and traffic jams would have made it possible, according to him, to make this border tangible. From then on, people could have seen the absurdity of having two different governments and two different health and education systems on such a small island. This would have been used for the republican struggle which militates for the reunification of the island!
. A reunification which would therefore take place through the ballot box, and not by arms.
– .
