Will Brexit Mean a Step Back for The North of Ireland?

Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney believes Brexit may have a detrimental effect on The Good Friday Agreement.

The Good Friday Agreement has a huge part to play here in The North of Ireland, however, could Brexit see a return of violence in the North once again?

“It has the potential to divide. Its impacts are very, very obvious. People who live in the North of Ireland who after the terms of the GFA are guaranteed Irish citizenship, Irish citizenship guarantees you citizenship of the European Union and all the rights that go with that.

“If Brexit goes ahead as outlined by the Tory government then yes it will have a detrimental impact to The Good Friday Agreement.”

The Good Friday Agreement or The Belfast Agreement was signed on April 10 1998. The agreement outlined many aspects, but most importantly it ensured a coalition government in Northern Ireland. This was achieved by having a First Minister and a Deputy First Minister from two of the leading nationalist and unionist parties in Northern Ireland.

However, just after we’ve remembered the twentieth anniversary of The Good Friday Agreement, the agreement itself is now being called into question. With Sinn Fein abstaining from taking their seats in Westminster, the DUP now clearly has more power than them in terms of Northern Ireland considering this is the norths only means of government since the collapse of the executive over a year ago. The unionist voice is being heard loud and clear above that of the nationalist population.

“Politics can sometimes have short term gains. In many ways whatever the DUP has achieved in terms of bringing extra money, we’ll see how it works out but its money that should have always been spent here.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in terms of the relationship between the Tories and the DUP, that the DUP are becoming the midwives for austerity.

“I think the whole Brexit debacle, particularly the fighting within the Tory government will show that to be very short term and not only short term, it will end in ultimate disaster.”

Mr. McCartney believes that The Good Friday Agreement is still the best option for the north and says that without it there would be very little equality in Northern Ireland.

“As an Irish republican I would have always preferred to have seen a unitary state, but The Good Friday Agreement created the platform in which everyone could express their democratic wishes in a peaceful and democratic way.

“It insured power sharing because obviously with the miss use of power in the old Stormont resume where unionism practically run a one-party state.

“As with any agreement perhaps now and again it needs re-examined and made stronger but the fundamentals of it remain the same, it was a recognition that equality had to be at the heart of government and that there needed to be all Ireland institutions as well.”

The history of The North and of Ireland as a whole, most certainly cannot be ignored. Sectarianism is still alive and well here in Northern Ireland and without coalition government we would not be able to survive with majority rule. I didn’t work before, it won’t work again.

“Sometimes people try to reduce it down to sectarianism because Nationalism equals Catholic, Protestantism equals Unionism, but that’s just the dint of history. You can’t have a situation where majority rules, it didn’t work in the past and it wouldn’t have guaranteed equality, that was just the reality of the situation.

“The designation was necessary to ensure that power sharing would work in a particular way. In many ways The Good Friday Agreement wasn’t a perfect document, but we don’t live in a perfect situation.

“Indeed, partition of Ireland in the 1920’s ensured that we live pretty much in an artificial state, we lived very much in a state that’s based on domination, so if you’re going to tackle that then sometimes the way to tackle it isn’t perhaps the democratic norm.”

Another aspect of The Good Friday Agreement is that of the D’Hondt system which was developed by Belgian statesman Albert D’Hondt. The D’Hondt system is a mathematical formula which involves the use of highest average. In Northern Ireland the D’Hondt system is used to allow coalition government to exist effectively.

This system sounds ideal in theory, however, in reality the difficulty of getting two parties with completely different ideologies to agree upon issues is more difficult. So why not use another system? Well this is certainly easier said than done and Mr. McCartney believes that the D’Hondt system is the best option we’ve got.

“Currently in terms of the North, in terms of ensuring that you have very rigorous checks and balances around equality and proportionality power sharing yes I think it’s the best system.”

The Good Friday Agreement is now in jeopardy of becoming redundant if the Stormont executive cannot be sorted out. Some believe it is time for change. However, is there really a better option for The North of Ireland considering our dark past? We most certainly don’t want a return to violence.

Joshua McConnellogue

Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney believes that Brexit has the “potential to divide” in Ireland.

Muff Locals Reflect on Hard Border Prospect.

The impact of Brexit will no doubt be felt throughout the country but even more so in border towns and villages.

One such village is Muff Co. Donegal. With five fuel stations that rely heavily on Northern customers the consequences of a hard border would mean catastrophe for these businesses and their employee’s.

North West Regional College (NWRC) student and Maxol filling station employee Jack McConnellogue said that “a hard border would make life difficult for us of course, travelling in and out of Derry for college would no longer be a fifteen minute journey.

“It would also mean me probably losing my job as well as a lot of my friends. Twelve of us work on the forecourt and I can easily say that the majority of our customers are from the North, mainly Derry.”

Moville Community College student Stephen Slattery said, “I am hoping to go to NWRC next year and if there was a hard border in place this would become very impractical and I’d probably be better off going to Letterkenny IT.”

Muff native Emma-jo Mullan has expressed her concern saying that “a hard border would not be accepted by the people of Ireland as we’ve seen in the past.

“I’ve travelled from Italy to Switzerland and there is a hard border there without any problem, but I feel due to our past the people will not accept it and that there will most definitely be rioting, and I don’t think anyone wants to go back to living in fear in our own country.”

Sign at the border between The North and The South of Ireland written in Irish and English.

Joshua McConnellogue