Looming Irish vote tells us to Eire on the side of caution

DIEHARD Remainers bang on about a second referendum before Britain leaves the EU. But there’s talk of another referendum rumbling. No, not in Scotland – but in Northern Ireland.

When Tony Blair negotiated the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the question of who owned Northern Ireland was not answered but parked.

Protestant loyalists maintained the country belonged to Britain, while Catholic republicans upheld Ireland’s claim. Power-sharing to end 30 years of violence softened attitudes.

Tucked away in the Good Friday Agreement is provision for a referendum on Irish unification, but 20 years ago no one imagined it might be triggered.

That has changed thanks to

Brexit – and the prospect of new border posts dividing north and south.

The last one, in Newry, was blown up in 1972.

The Economist magazine says it was no surprise that

Sinn Fein demanded a referendum days after the

2016 Brexit vote. But now moderate nationalists are also talking about it.

And, crucially, Northern Ireland’s Catholics will soon outnumber its Protestants.

A 2015 poll showed 30 per cent of Northern Ireland voters favoured reunification. But that dropped to 11 per cent if it meant higher taxes – the only way Dublin could afford £10billion in lost British subsidies. But a hard Irish border could move those figures. Brexit Secretary David Davis breezily talks of creating crossings such as those separating Canada from the US. That’s complacent.

Get this wrong, DD, and the UK could break up.

WALL OVER?