North should remain in EU – as its people voted

YOU should send the excellent article by retired Irish ambassador Niall Holohan (‘Time to take gloves off and lay bare what hard Brexit really means for people of these islands’, Irish Independent, October 2) to Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Mrs May must not be very au fait with British affairs in Ireland over the last 100 years, otherwise she would not be making foolish remarks about a border in the Irish Sea as dividing a part of the UK from the rest of the UK. Northern Ireland was since 1922 an appendage to the UK. The name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In accordance with Article 75 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, this arrangement will prevail until a majority in Northern Ireland decides otherwise. There is no such arrangement for Scotland or Wales. There were a number of laws passed by the Westminster parliament, notably the Abortion Act 1967, which did not apply in Northern Ireland. Mrs May completely ignores the fact that 56pc of the electorate in the North voted remain. Critics in this State of Leo Varadkar’s Government’s stance on Brexit are sabotaging the national interest and emboldening intransigence by DUP members and some like-minded persons in the UK.

The DUP and its Tory allies across the water have no problem with the Irish Sea being the border when it comes to liberal legislation that is not to DUP liking.

The sensible solution to the Border issue is for Northern Ireland to remain in the EU as per the democratic vote of the people there, and have the Irish Sea as the Border.

This will mean no constitutional change to the existing status of Northern Ireland as an appendage of the UK, which can only be changed in a Border poll. All parties in Northern Ireland are signed up to this, as are the London and Dublin parliaments, and it should not provide any threat to the Unionist majority for the foreseeable future. Paul Connolly

Address with editor