Dublin Brexit stance may provoke loyalist violence, warns Trimble

THE Government’s approach to the border in the Brexit talks risks provoking violence from loyalist paramilitaries, former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has warned.

Mr Trimble, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the key architects of the Good Friday Agreement, believes Dublin’s approach to the talks has undermined the principle of consent that is the basis of the peace deal.

Attempts to keep the North as part of the Customs Union, or to give the region ‘special status’, will weaken its ties to the United Kingdom and threaten unionist rights to self-determination, he said. ‘What is happening now is that people are talking up the issue of Brexit and the border for the benefit of a different agenda from the agreement.

‘The one thing that would provoke loyalist paramilitaries is the Irish Government saying silly things about the border and the constitutional issue.

‘If it looks as though the constitutional arrangements of the agreement, based on the principle of consent, are going to be superseded by so-called ‘special EU status’ then that will weaken the union and undermine the very agreement Dublin says it wants to uphold.’

The former Northern First Minister said the kind of Brexit deals being sought from Dublin are undermining the principle of consent, which would result in loyalist paramilitary groups resuming their activities.

‘I believe that some senior Irish Government officials go around Brussels talking about the ‘Hong Kong model’ – the one country, two systems idea,’ he said in an interview with the Guardian.

‘That is a precedent they talk about where sovereignty has been transferred from Britain to China. Anything that looks remotely like this or is building on that foundation would be extremely dangerous. Although I think that under this Conservative government I cannot see that prevailing.’

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