NOW NOT THE TIME TO SOFTEN OUR LANGUAGE ON BORDER

BREXIT appears to have bankrupted the political vocabularies when it comes to resolving differences. In all the fog and obfuscation, one thing that was crystal clear was that we had a “backstop”, or safeguard, to avoid a hard Border with the North.

The only way this could be avoided – along with the attendant border posts and customs checks – would be for a version of the status quo to remain after the UK exits the EU. So the North would remain within some form of a customs union.

That’s why we were very much relieved when both Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney assured us that this “deal” was “bulletproof” based on a bond sealed with Theresa May in the December agreement.

But things have changed. As the pressure comes on and a no-deal scenario looks like a real possibility, the one measure that would give us most protection is now open for discussion.

The call went up in Europe to “de-dramatise” the situation. It appears that we have “blinked,” and there is to be a “softening” of the language surrounding a hitherto sacrosanct arrangement.

We are easing up on what was hailed as a signal achievement in guarding our most vital interests. In diplomacy, language is everything. In the same week we heard Boris Johnson accuse Theresa May

The one measure that would give us Brexit protection is now open for discussion

of “planting a white flag on the Brexit tank” and in which he also claimed her Chequers proposals were “placing a suicide vest upon the British constitution”, we have agreed to “soften” our language.

The timing of the decision to compromise on the wording seems highly questionable just a month from when the Withdrawal Agreement is to be signed. It is all the more inexplicable in view of repeated assurances that Brussels would have Ireland’s back, even if no deal was concluded.

We had the consolation of knowing the safety net was fixed, and there could be no going back on a hard-won arrangement. No other country in the EU has such a compelling need to avoid customs checks and tariffs or stands to be hit so hard. Yet, even without any clear sign of how a final deal might look, we have bowed to make concessions on the terms of how something we were told was already negotiated is phrased.

Nowhere in the world do words matter more than in the North. It was Nelson Mandela who said that if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. But that only works if there is a willingness to engage and understand.

Any form of compromise in a game of brinkmanship will be regarded as weakness, and that is how our shift will be interpreted. Have we stepped away from the backstop demands in favour of some vague promises about a yet-to-be-decided future arrangement?

After the Great War, Winston Churchill wrote of the intractable nature of conflict in the North: “As the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their quarrel is one of the few institutions that have been unaltered in the cataclysm which has swept the world.”

Their shadow is as imposing as ever. It is time to forget about magical thinking and focus on real consequences. Let us not forget that more than 3,700 lives were lost before the Good Friday Agreement secured peace – or maybe we already have.