Peace threat claims reckless: Empey
A CLAIM that Brexit will threaten the peace process has been branded reckless.
Ulster Unionist peer Lord Empey expressed concern over research which analysed the impact on Northern Ireland of the UK’s impending divorce from the EU.
The findings by Queen’s University, Ulster University and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) contend that Brexit will have detrimental consequences on cross-border relations.
BrexitLawNI is led by Professor Colin Harvey from the School of Law at Queen’s.
He described Brexit as a “profound constitutional moment for Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland”, saying: “Brexit will threaten the peace process and weaken protections for human rights and equality.”
Brian Gormally, director of the CAJ, said Brexit could even “reignite the conflict”.
But Lord Empey, the former UUP leader, expressed deep scep- ticism at the findings. He said: “The suggestion that leaving the EU could spark terrorism again is a reckless assertion and can only provide an excuse for those who have never accepted the peace process and the arrangements arising from it.
“To assert that fellow Irishmen and women are prepared to kill their neighbours or blow their legs off because we are leaving the EU — an institution which Sinn Fein opposed us joining in the 1970s — is outrageous.
“To shape public policy out of fear of terrorism is to abandon the rule of law and democracy, and would be the path to anarchy. Indeed, some people seem to have forgotten that throughout the period of the UK’s membership of the EU, the IRA was fully active.”
The report, published yesterday, follows 18 months of research involving interviews, consultations and town hall-style events.
Researchers met with politicians and officials in Belfast, London, Dublin and Brussels as well as with business representatives, trade unions and community activists.
The academics said they detect “widespread anxiety” about the long-term impact of Brexit across Ireland.
They have called for a “bespoke solution for this region”.
Recommendations from the study include that Northern Ireland remains within the customs union and single market.
It also warns against a hard border, arguing that would “further undermine political relations” and could become a target for dissident republicans.