If history is any guide, solving the Irish border should be a doddle

Rugby is a fine example of the compromises we have always reached on the island of Ireland

Wrapped up against the snow at Twickenham last Saturday, cheering on Ireland to only their third Grand Slam since international rugby began more than 130 years ago, was to be reminded of the complex web of loyalties and identities that exist in these islands. With no group of people is this more apparent than Northern Ireland Protestants.

As an Ulsterman, I supported the Irish even though I have lived in England for most of my life – and not just because they won, as my English friends would have it. Rugby is a sport that the two parts of Ireland, severed in 1921, continue to play together. One of my father’s sporting heroes was Jackie Kyle, the Belfast fly-half who captained the legendary Irish team that won the Grand Slam in 1948. Indeed, some of Ireland’s greatest players have been from the North – Mike Gibson and Willie John Mcbride among them. The Six Nations trophy was presented on Saturday to the current captain Rory Best, also an Ulsterman.

It mattered not a fig to the shivering fans in green on St Patrick’s Day that their team comprised players from two separate countries. So interwoven have our histories been over the years that it does not seem odd at all. And yet it is. The Northern Irish, as the name suggests, feel Irish but the Protestant side cling to their Britishness, more so than any other people in the UK. By and large, the Roman Catholic community remain subjects to the Crown, though some choose Irish identity, as they can.

There was a time when Ireland’s internationals were occasionally staged in Belfast with God Save the Queen as the anthem, until players from the South refused to take to the pitch unless it was dropped. At Lansdowne Road in Dublin the crowd sings the Irish national anthem, Amhrán na bhfiann (The Soldier’s Song), whose words few Ulster Protestants know and don’t want to sing anyway.

On Saturday I sang Ireland’s Call, the cross-tradition anthem written in 1995 by Phil Coulter, which in Dublin is played alongside The Soldier’s Song but on its own elsewhere. But I also joined in the national anthem since I don’t regard it as England’s alone. (Why doesn’t England have its own anthem – Jerusalem, or something written specially?) Irish fans took some getting used to Ireland’s Call but largely embrace it now, not least its message of disparate parts coming together, stronger as a result.

Arguments about the anthem at Ireland’s rugby matches over the years make the Brexit talks look piffling by comparison. But compromises were reached to reflect differing traditions on the island. One problem with the current stand-off over the Irish border is that, because of the complicated history, sentiment often trumps pragmatism, resulting in entrenched positions that make compromise hard.

There are also misunderstandings. Theresa May’s adamantine insistence that there will be no “hard border” has led some to assume that there is no border now. But there is a border and there has been since 1921, even if it is largely unmarked and invisible. It has had different iterations over the years depending on circumstances.

During the Troubles there were security posts and watchtowers. But long before that and until the single market was established, there were customs and excise checks on major crossings. The circumstances have changed again with the UK’S decision to leave the EU; but that is an invitation to work something out, not drive a wedge between two countries that have overcome bigger difficulties in the past.

A Commons select committee last week said they had “no visibility of any technical solutions, anywhere in the world, beyond the aspirational, that would remove the need for physical infrastructure at the border”. But this does not mean it is impossible, just difficult and a matter of scale.

Since the Government says Britain will leave the customs union and the single market and won’t accept a hard border in Ireland or a border down the Irish Sea, a way has to be found of squaring the circle. Ideas include cross-border trusted trader schemes, small business exemptions and a variety of in-country checks and mutual recognition agreements that would cover most goods and animal traffic. The movement of people is governed by the Common Travel Area, which will continue unless the UK introduces visa checks on EU citizens after transition, which is unlikely.

Of course, an effective UK-EU border is needed to prevent goods crossing without paying tariffs or complying with regulations on product standards. But most of this can be done using new technology – bar code ID, satellites, automatic number plate recognition and all the other paraphernalia of modern life which does not constitute a “hard border” in anyone’s book.

Clearly this is all predicated upon the final EU-UK relationship which we have not even started to talk about yet. The reason the Government had to concede so much on transition was in order to move on to the next phase and avert a failed summit this week that would have left Mrs May politically vulnerable.

From the outset, these talks have been hampered by summit deadlines, ticking clocks and the daft sequencing that put the Irish border issue at the beginning of the process rather than the end. The issue has been parked for now pending the outcome of the trade negotiations. But time is running out, and political heads of agreement on the final deal are needed before it is put to Parliament in October if Labour pressure to keep the whole UK in the customs union is to be faced down.

All depends on political commitment and a recognition of mutual interest – principles that are enshrined in EU law, stipulating that “the Union shall develop a special relationship with neighbouring countries, aiming to establish an area of prosperity and good neighbourliness.” Michel Barnier, in evidence to the Commons Northern Ireland Affairs select committee, said a free-trade agreement could be concluded before the end of the transition period, which would mitigate the border issue. It won’t be easy; but as we have seen in Ireland before, it can be done.