Prime Minister fails to ‘get’ Ireland
GERAINT Talfan Davies (Western Mail, July 27) sets out with his usual erudition the dangers of the Johnson Premiership, but there is one dimension of Johnson’s “do or die” Brexit that demands particular attention.
On July 21 1972 the IRA exploded 19 bombs in Belfast, killing nine and injuring over 100. Of the nine, five were Welsh Guardsmen.
Since the Belfast Agreement we have largely been spared such atrocities as Bloody Friday, as it became known, but between 1969 and 1997 1,441 serving members of the British armed forces died, together with 319 members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. All or nearly all were drawn from what Boris Johnson calls the “awesome foursome” (England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland). In this sense at least he is right.
But such is his cavalier attitude to the Irish border that we risk a return to the carnage. A hard Brexit, whether Johnson likes it or not, whether Johnson cares or not, will mean a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. He can bluster as much as he likes about technical solutions, not erecting border infrastructure and so forth, but all he does is betray his complete lack of understanding of the delicacy of the situation. He thinks it’s all about money/tax/duties/logistics.
For the communities along the border, both sides and both traditions, liberated from danger by the Belfast Agreement, there must be no going back. Yet Johnson, like many Englishmen, fails to “get” Ireland. The border is not about customs. Its presence since 1922 is an identity anchor for Ulster Unionists and a slap in the face to Irish Nationalists. Membership of the EU and the Belfast Agreement have largely marginalised that symbolism. There is a normality to life hitherto unknown.
A hard Brexit will re-open the wounds that are currently, slowly, healing. A hard Brexit will create opportunities along a famously unmanageable border for the
consequent mischief, starting with a bit of smuggling here and there but as money from it starts to be made the hard men (who haven’t gone away) will want a piece of the action and it will escalate from there.
Johnson may wish to “do” Brexit, but more of the “awesome foursome” may “die” for it. As he crowns himself Minister for the Union, does he understand this?
Robin Lynn Sully, Penarth