Will Republic man the border or defy the EU?

KATE O’Brien, in her novel The Land of Spices, has it said of people of the ilk of John O’Sullivan from Kilkenny (Write Back, February 4) that “they were an ancient, martyred race, and of great importance to themselves”.

John ponders — given the possibility of a Brexit — whether, if the Irish people could have but known, they would have voted for the removal of Articles 2 and 3 (claiming for the Republic the territory of Northern Ireland). It seems that he would not.

The Irish people, however, don’t run the EU, as he, perhaps understandably — given the way Dublin ministers continually talk about “we and our partners have decided” — seems to think.

If the issue of Articles 2 and 3 had been raised at the time that the UK and the Republic applied for admission to the-then European Economic Union, John would have been faced with no such issue.

Both the UK and the Republic, I think I am correct in saying, would have been told to go away and settle their differences and, if they could do so, then apply again — much as, more recently, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia named itself ‘Macedonia’ (unqualified) in its application for admission to the EU.

Greece objected over the implication of the name. Its application could not be considered until it and Greece (the northern part of which is also called Macedonia) reached some agreement on names.

All that, however, is the past. The dilemma for John now is, if there is a hard border following Brexit, the Republic has to man it or defytheEU.

WA MILLER Belfast