The Passenger by The Passenger

Author:The Passenger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 2021-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

2020

The EU and the UK agree to the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, which introduces a customs border for goods in the Irish Sea, provoking the anger of unionists who see Northern Ireland’s separation from Great Britain regarding trade as a prelude to the unification of Ireland.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge in Ballintoy, County Antrim.

Shipping containers in Dublin Port.

‘The closer to the land frontier you get the more likely you are to be in Catholic Irish-nationalist territory, while the nearer you are to the narrow sea the greater the chance you will find yourself among Protestant pro-British unionists.’

For most of his long career Paisley was known as the ‘Dr No’ of Northern Ireland politics, a protest politician who would reject any hint of compromise, quick to denounce his Irish-nationalist opponents and the Catholic Church that they revered. Initially Paisley regarded the European Union as a conspiracy to create a Catholic superstate, and in 1988, as a Member of the European Parliament, he interrupted a speech to the European Parliament by Pope John Paul II shouting, ‘I denounce you as the Antichrist!’ In later years, though, Paisley mellowed, joining with nationalists like the Nobel Peace Prize-winner John Hume in ensuring Northern Ireland benefited from European grants. Then, astonishingly, he reached a deal to share power with his erstwhile Irish-republican enemies. In 2007 his conversion both to power sharing and working with the European Union seemed complete when I covered a news conference during which the octogenarian Paisley laughed and joked with the senior EU diplomat José Manuel Barroso. All antipathy towards Brussels seemed forgotten as Paisley told Barroso Northern Ireland produced the finest food in all Europe and extolled the virtues of ‘fadge’ potato bread, a local delicacy the Portuguese diplomat could be forgiven for never having previously tasted.

Ian Paisley died in 2014, but these days North Antrim is represented by his son and namesake, Ian Paisley Jr. Ian Jr inherited his father’s scepticism regarding the EU, strongly supporting Brexit in the 2016 referendum. Now, in common with other unionists, he rails against the sea border as a betrayal of the UK-wide Brexit he had hoped to achieve. Ian Jr emphasises that his enthusiasm for Brexit shouldn’t be mistaken for any antipathy towards individual Europeans, whom he hopes will continue to come and visit the ‘majestic rugged beauty’ of his North Antrim constituency. He tells me Brexit is about ‘trade relationships, not personal relationships. I’m not less European because I don’t want to be part of the EU. Are the Swiss less European because they have never been part of it? I don’t think so. We are an island. We have an island mentality, and wanting to do it our own way is something that’s not unusual for island folk. It was about opposition to the bureaucracy of the European community, it was not about opposition to Europeans.’

During the post-Brexit negotiations Paisley Jr didn’t think either Brussels or London paid enough attention to how important trade and relationships across the narrow sea were for people in Northern Ireland.

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.