A Troubled Constitutional Future by Mary C. Murphy

Author:Mary C. Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Agenda Publishing
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

“To attempt and paint every one of those [Remain] people as nationalist is plainly wrong”

The Alliance Party was decisive and arguably measured in its response to the Leave vote. Having been acutely attuned to the potential fallout from Brexit for Northern Ireland, the party’s reaction to the vote was based on respecting the democratic will of the people but noting that the democratic will in Northern Ireland did not mirror the UK-wide vote. Immediately following the vote, Alliance positioned Northern Ireland as being distinct not just in terms of its preference to Remain, but also its differential governance arrangements and its evident special circumstances which, the party argued, provided a basis for tailoring Northern Ireland’s future relationship with the EU (Alliance Party 2016b): “While Alliance regrets the result, as democrats we respect the outcome of the referendum. We are not here to refight the referendum but instead are seeking assurance the negotiations both within the UK, and between the UK and EU, will reflect the fact most people in Northern Ireland [and Scotland] want a very different relationship with the EU than do England and Wales”. The party was proactive in seeking to push and to mainstream the view that Northern Ireland should be treated uniquely during the subsequent EU–UK negotiation period. The party’s logic for supporting special arrangements was explicitly linked to Northern Ireland’s distinctiveness relative to the rest of the UK. As the Alliance Party saw it, key differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK supported the necessity for bespoke arrangements. These included: the majority Remain vote in Northern Ireland; the automatic right of people in Northern Ireland to be Irish citizens and, therefore, EU citizens; Northern Ireland’s right to determine its own constitutional status; the North–South organization of aspects of the economy; and the existence of a physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland/EU (see Alliance Party 2017: 7). Exiting the EU risked disrupting key aspects of Northern Ireland’s tenuous political and economic situation, and in this way, there were concerns that Brexit challenged the values and framework of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. The rationale for supporting bespoke arrangements for Northern Ireland was, therefore, grounded primarily in practical concerns about the political and economic impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland and the need to protect the 1998 Agreement.

The form of special deal favoured by the Alliance Party was extensive and included: Northern Ireland participation in the single market and customs union; adherence to the four freedoms of movement; access to structural and competitive funds; rights to EU citizenship for all born in Northern Ireland; Northern Ireland covered by EU regulations; and Assembly control over EU Directives (Alliance Party 2017: 7). In the context of a soft Brexit (which the Alliance Party favoured), there would be limited and minimal differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. However, in the event of a hard Brexit, Northern Ireland would be all the more detached and distinct relative to the rest of the UK were it to be subject to special arrangements.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.