Failure to act gave us the Border

■ The coincidence of the commemoration of the death of John Redmond in 1918 and the argument about the ‘hard Border’ in relation to Brexit is ironic.

The imperial parliament, which was making and enforcing the rules and laws for nearly a quarter the population of the globe at the time, spent more than two years passing the Home Rule Act at Redmond’s and his Irish Parliamentary Party’s request between 1912 and 1914.

That act gave limited self rule to the island of Ireland with a parliament in Dublin.

The only problem was that the imperial parliament, governing an empire on which “the sun never set” failed to implement it.

Instead, it imposed a border on the island of Ireland.

This was despite the fact that a proposal to impose such a border had actually been voted down during the passage of the Home Rule Act itself.

The reason for the imposition of the Border was that Ulster Unionists wanted to opt out of a united Ireland.

Fast forward to the present when the same Border is now going to be a major international land frontier between the EU and the UK.

The reason why there is going to be a major international frontier on the island of Ireland now is that the descendants of the people who were in charge of the empire on which the sun never set – and who set up the Border – now want to opt out of the European Union.

A Leavy Sutton, Dublin 13