Tag Archives: st patrick’s day

Joe Bourke

Irish Liberal Democrats and LDV St Patrick’s Day fringe at York

By Joe Bourke | Thu 16th March 2017 - 10:18 am

Theresa May dealt a blow to Ireland in her Brexit white paper when she said she wanted in effect to leave the EU customs union, confirming Brexit poses a huge threat to frictionless cross-border trade on the island of Ireland, the mainstay of the Irish economy.

The Irish Ambassador to the UK, Daniel Mulhall said last month that comprehensive customs and border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland are not remotely possible

Northern Ireland polled more europhilic than other regions in the UK before the election. Its Remain vote of 55.7 per cent was the third strongest in the country. Nationalists wanted the UK to remain in the EU, but unionists generally wanted to leave. Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionists, Alliance and the Green Party wanted to stay. The Irish government also wanted a remain vote. The DUP, the TUV and the left-wing People before Profit party backed Brexit.

As Sinn Fein and the DUP jostle for position in a new power sharing agreement at Stormont the Brexit divide has come to the fore. If the parties are unable to agree an accommodation, we may yet see a return to direct rule of the province from Westminster.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Advert



Recent Comments

  • graham
    Thanks Mark. I too enjoyed the film Conclave which is based on Robert Harris`s novel of the same name which is a page turner. Like the previous film "Two Popes"...
  • Daniel Stylianou
    Morgan - looking to the Australian model doesn’t really help because members of their Senate are directly elected, just as in the US system. It goes back to t...
  • Craig Levene
    Sarah Campion, Dan Carden , Andy Burnham. Have all called for a further enquiry, & rightly so. Reading Dan's statement, it certainly resonates. These horrif...
  • Paul Barker
    Just on the point of comparison, I know from experience that German Trains are much worse than those around London & The South-East. Again, they seem to ha...
  • David Garlick
    We can't move in revolutionary manner if we want to progress in a way that improves our Party whilst making room to test changes out. I think that the report f...