Brexit contradictions threaten Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace
Peace agreements are delicate creatures. They require nurturing and care. The longer and more bitter the conflict, the greater this applies. And nowhere is this truer than in Northern Ireland. Since the beginning of the month, Northern Ireland has witnessed its worst rioting in years. With every injury, anger and fear rises. Most people in Northern Ireland are totally opposed to the rioting, but sadly it does not need many to light the flame. The summer marching season will be a dangerous juncture.
Saturday marked the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.
This deal came on the back of 35 years of sectarian violence, intercommunal tensions and terrorism, including on mainland Britain. Nobody should wish to see a return to the dark days of the Troubles. Just because peaceful relations have held, for the most part, since 1998 does not mean that all issues have been resolved, just as the formal end of the civil war in Lebanon did not equal perfect intercommunal bliss.
The people of Northern Ireland do not take kindly to being treated as if the province is an inconvenient backwater. The English establishment in Westminster is doing exactly that. It took six days for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to say anything about the violence. Old Northern Ireland hands emphasize the need to work the phones overtime, reaching out to all parties at the highest levels.
Brexit did no favors to Northern Ireland.
Too many in the Brexiteer camp were reckless and too easily prepared to sacrifice peace in Northern Ireland for their cherished goals of what they believed to be a return of British sovereignty and independence. Northern Ireland, for some, was a burden.
Can the Good Friday Agreement survive all the contradictions of Brexit? The people of Northern Ireland want an open border with Ireland, but the British government refuses to concede one drop of sacred sovereignty in any deal with the EU. Unionists have noted the greater confidence Catholics have that there could be a united Ireland as a result of Brexit. Johnson has made a series of contradictory promises, including telling loyalists there would be no border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland while also telling the world there would be no hard border on the island of Ireland. He ultimately agreed to a trade border in the Irish Sea. Unionists see this as a betrayal and that Northern Ireland is no longer a fully signed up part of the United Kingdom. They want to see the border protocol ripped up.
The Irish government has sought to hold a summit, but this has reportedly been met with a cold shoulder from the British government, which is hyper-allergic to the merest suggestion that it is the Brexit deal and its stance on the Irish border issue that is at the root of the current flare-up in violence. The unionists see any Irish government involvement as interference in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland. The British government is more than a little aware that US President Joe Biden, who is an ardent defender of the Good Friday Agreement, is paying close attention.
The events in Northern Ireland are worth watching and learning from. Too many conflicts are flourishing around the world and too many are on the brink of exploding. Northern Ireland is a salutary reminder why peace diplomacy is not a luxury but a necessity, and one that should not be abandoned when the ink on any deal is dry. Any peace agreement can break apart and, when it does so, it may take even longer to repair the damage.