The contradictions of Brexit mean GUBU for us in Ireland

THE Irish tourist board, Fáilte Ireland, boasted this week that a new flashy and expensive advertising campaign will be seen by 255million Americans. The campaign, funded lavishly primarily by the hard-pressed Irish taxpayer, encourages tourists to visit the Wild Atlantic Way, the Giant’s Causeway in Antrim and the Titanic Centre in Belfast. In a week when British Prime Minister Theresa May threatened that if the EU does not do a deal on Brexit it ‘would be an act of calamitous selfharm’, one wonders why we are spending public money encouraging Yanks to spend their dollars in another country. Brexit will throw up many of these contradictions.

It is now 35 years since the late Charles J Haughey gave us the phrase GUBU – referring to a crisis at the time as ‘grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented’. Be in no doubt – Brexit is GUBU. Grotesquely, Northern Ireland will become the most contentious border in Europe when the UK jettisons their European neighbours.

Neither Brussels nor Westminster will give a damn about sacrificing the 350 border crossings between the Republic and Northern Ireland when the negotiations break down in acrimony, accusation and trade retaliation, which they inevitably will.

Unbelievably, senior Irish commentators with the ear of the Taoiseach are trumpeting that the UK will not go through with Brexit.

Look at the almost universal British media adoration of Theresa May’s hardline speech this week. The Sun boasted that ‘we could have written it’; she was labelled ‘Tungsten Theresa’ and the ‘New Iron Lady.

Only the Guardian, whose daily sales are a mere fraction of the popular press, criticised the speech. So be in no doubt: Britain is leaving the EU.

Ironically, the theme of the British prime minister’s speech last Tuesday was about ‘global Britain’.

How you can claim that as you jettison your 27 nearest and dearest neighbours and build even higher walls around your house to keep them out is a mystery.

It is not just illogical, it’s beyond laughable.

Unprecedented is the only word to describe the new political scenario which puts the prospect of a united Ireland firmly back on the agenda – and the break-up of the United Kingdom a real possibility.

Even one hundred years ago as this State was been born out of bullets and blood the chances of a united Ireland did not loom as large as it does today.

To add more of the grotesque to the recipe, the very politicians who support Brexit – including Arlene Foster and the Democratic Unionist Party in the North, and the baying Tories cheerleading Theresa May in the House of Commons – are making the breakup of their beloved United Kingdom inevitable.

A trade war between the EU and the UK is now highly likely. Perhaps not unprecedentedly, the biggest casualty will be the Irish economy as we become caught in the crossfire.

Irish goods will be slapped with the same extra tariffs as every other EU country – no ifs, buts or exemptions. Given our dependence on trade with our nearest neighbour it is calamitious prospect.

You might say it threatens to be a disaster of Titanic proportions.

THERE is still one more battle for women in Ireland on the road to genuine equality. For the last fortnight I’ve been listening to stories from women who have been left out of their parents’ will for no other reason than their gender. The discrimination is rampant in farm families where the sons, regardless of age, ability or attitude, automatically are left the farm while daughters are given the costume jewellery and a set of delph. Bizarrely, there is universal silence on this rampant inequality from farming and women’s organisations. To add insult to injury, the State turns a blind eye to this travesty by giving massive tax breaks on family farm inheritance.