The Irish Problem

[darmstadt]

How do you think the Irish border should be handled?

Let me see, the UK voted to leave the EU, Northern Ireland is part of the UK therefore it should be treated like the rest of the UK. This means a hard border, no SM, no CU, nada. Maybe if people had thought about this before voting, then the problem would not have arisen. Don't forget Gibraltar too...

[PurpleGorilla]

Let me see, the UK voted to leave the EU, Northern Ireland is part of the UK therefore it should be treated like the rest of the UK. This means a hard border, no SM, no CU, nada. Maybe if people had thought about this before voting, then the problem would not have arisen. Don't forget Gibraltar too...

Gibraltar has a hard border already.

[Zigenare]

Gibraltar has a hard border already.

FFS, don't bring facts into such an emotive subject!

[Old Greg]

The Irish Problem is now one of the biggest Brexit headaches. What are you thoughts?

Nobody has explained the problem except "It will destroy the Good Friday Agreement and paramilitaries will be killing each other left, right and centre".

My suspicion is currently there is a huge amount of illegal activity ie organised crime that crosses the border. Any new monitoring will shine an inevitable light on it and lots of key players will have their lifestyles threatened.

Do we risk screwing the rest of the Brexit debate just to accommodate a bunch of criminals?

There are a lot of crossing points - more than there are between the USA and Canada, and along the entire EU's eastern border. Combined.

[WTFH]

However, after the Good Friday Appeasement, there was always going to be a "Next Step" for Ireland with or without Brexit. Yes Brexit has brought the problem to the fore recently but "something" was always going to have to be done - but nobody quite knows what.

You've been there, you understand something about it and you admit that nobody knows what the next step needs to be. I mostly agree with you, but I believe (and have said before) that the next step is to maintain the peace for a couple of generations, while having integrated education. As soon as you have children learning the same history, sitting beside people whose parents didn't have the opportunity to do that. The sooner you have children from both sides playing games together, living and realising that they are very similar, then that's when the peace becomes more lasting. And it's going to take a couple of generations to get the sectarianism and bigotry bred out of the community.

There's a bunch of keyboard warriors on here who are saying it's easy, it's not important, it's not a problem, or it's the EU's fault.
The Troubles were nothing to do with the EU.
The GFA had a lot to do with the EU - specifically about the freedom of movement of people/goods/services.
When UK voters voted to leave the EU, then the GFA no longer is workable, unless UK politicians can agree something among themselves that allows freedom of movement of people, goods & services in Ireland. If the UK politicians can solve that one, then the GFA stays and the peace will last a bit longer. It's up to the UK politicians to work that one out, they are the ones who triggered Article 50. Not the EU.

[darmstadt]

Gibraltar has a hard border already.

To put it that way, so does the UK and the rest of Europe as there are passport checks due to the UK not being in the Schengen zone. The Irish border though is slightly different but will change now due to people's inconsideration...

[Zigenare]

You've been there, you understand something about it and you admit that nobody knows what the next step needs to be. I mostly agree with you, but I believe (and have said before) that the next step is to maintain the peace for a couple of generations, while having integrated education. As soon as you have children learning the same history, sitting beside people whose parents didn't have the opportunity to do that. The sooner you have children from both sides playing games together, living and realising that they are very similar, then that's when the peace becomes more lasting. And it's going to take a couple of generations to get the sectarianism and bigotry bred out of the community.

There's a bunch of keyboard warriors on here who are saying it's easy, it's not important, it's not a problem, or it's the EU's fault.
The Troubles were nothing to do with the EU.
The GFA had a lot to do with the EU - specifically about the freedom of movement of people/goods/services.
When UK voters voted to leave the EU, then the GFA no longer is workable, unless UK politicians can agree something among themselves that allows freedom of movement of people, goods & services in Ireland. If the UK politicians can solve that one, then the GFA stays and the peace will last a bit longer. It's up to the UK politicians to work that one out, they are the ones who triggered Article 50. Not the EU.

This is something that's been floated on numerous occasions, sponsored by numerous organisations and continues to fail.

People have long memories - FFS, some of them still remember 1 July 1690

[WTFH]

This is something that's been floated on numerous occasions, sponsored by numerous organisations and continues to fail.

I'm not convinced it is continuing to fail. There are more integrated schools now than in the past. It's easier to have them in the countryside than perhaps in Belfast and Stroke city, where political/religious divides dictate where you live, but I was still a bit hopeful for it, if it had been given a chance.

[Zigenare]

I'm not convinced it is continuing to fail. There are more integrated schools now than in the past. It's easier to have them in the countryside than perhaps in Belfast and Stroke city, where political/religious divides dictate where you live, but I was still a bit hopeful for it, if it had been given a chance.

Bless your enthusiasm, I suppose I'm too jaded - let's see what next Thursday's pub crawl down the Newtonards brings...

[The_Equalizer]

This is something that's been floated on numerous occasions, sponsored by numerous organisations and continues to fail.

People have long memories - FFS, some of them still remember 1 July 1690

Come on, you know it's eight hundred years of occupation!