![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The land border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, and an ‘Irish Sea border’ between the whole island and Great Britain, are pivotal to Brexit negotiations. A ‘hard’ land border with customs checks would damage the all-island economy and Ireland’s peace settlement and be highly porous. A sea border would be a less damaging and much more efficient option, but the Democratic Unionist Party claims it would undermine Northern Ireland’s constitutional position in the UK. A ‘hard’ border could be prevented and a sea border rendered unnecessary if the whole of the UK stayed in alignment with the EU’s Single Market, but that is unlikely. The threat of a ‘hard’ land border can be simply a bargaining ploy, but some Brexiters who prioritize new trade deals with other countries over maintaining existing trade with the EU press towards leaving the EU without an overall deal. That would push the conflict back to the EU’s so-called Backstop of a special arrangement for Northern Ireland along with the contentious ‘Irish Sea border’ option. This Commentary outlines the background and public discussion around the various alternatives in the Brexit negotiations, as seen from British, Irish and EU perspectives.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
James Anderson is Emeritus Professor of Political Geography in Queen's university Belfast.
Notes
1. The author is Emeritus Professor of Political Geography in the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and a founder-member of the Centre for International Borders Research (CIBR), at Queen’s University Belfast.
This account is mainly based on news media reports; and some of it was developed over the past year in various outlets, including The Irish Times, The Belfast Telegraph, the ESRC’s Society Now, and the Social Europe and agendaNI websites.
For helpful comments, thanks to two anonymous referees and to Paschal Preston and Ian Shuttleworth.
2. As Alliance Party leader Naomi Long put it, Irish News 1.5.18.
3. The three terms are from my CIBR colleague Cathal McCall (Citation2018 forthcoming).
4. E.g. Anderson, Citation1994; Harvey et al., Citation2005; O’Dowd, Corrigan, & Moore, Citation1995. CIBR was set up in 1999 and in 2000 organised an international conference with the newly-established Centre for Cross-Border Studies in Armagh (see Anderson, O’Dowd, & Wilson, Citation2001).
5. Northern Ireland’s police chief warned a ‘hard’ border would be a paramilitary target and put lives at risk, Guardian 7.2.18.
6. On the border-crossing Clones-Cavan road, the Drummully area is in the Republic but all the roads out of it go through Northern Ireland.
7. Not to be minimized by homely border tales of women smuggling food hidden in the baby’s blankets during World War II, or jokes like the man who always cycled to work but walked home as he smuggled bicycles.
8. This is sometimes called a ‘reverse Greenland’. The Danish state is in the EU, but part of it, Greenland, is not – the EU can flexibly accommodate anomalies when it wants to.
9. Floated in Irish Times, 7.8.17, and developed from an original ‘shared-space’ scenario by Phillip Pettit, Irish Times, 24.3.17. See: www.irishtimes.com/ … /post-brexit-border-issue-requires-a-double-doors-solution Then somewhat similarly, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin proposed a ‘special economic zone’ for Northern Ireland, Irish Times, 13.1.18.
10. Trump officials indicated any US-UK trade deal would include them, Guardian, 14.2.18.
11. The EU dismissed it as ‘magical thinking’, Guardian 25.8.17.
12. Financial Times, 5.2.18.
13. Floated in Belfast Telegraph, 20.9.17. See: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ … /brexiteers-are-holding-northern-ireland-to-ransom
14. Whereas critics of neo-liberalism (and Germany’s ordoliberalism) see the EU as overly neo-liberal which encourages right-wing populism (including Brexit), these neo-liberal Brexiters see only EU regulations holding back UK exporting. But Germany manages to export about five times more goods to China; and their heroine Margaret Thatcher was actually a champion of the Single Market.
15. Newman (Citation1996, 14) argues ‘sovereignty’ is an ‘anachronistic, ambiguous and unhelpful’ concept and he decided not to use it.
16. By the former secretary of the UK’s international trade department, Guardian 27.2.18.
17. Guardian, 15.8.17.
18. Various media reports in early May 2018 following Cabinet committee opposition to the ‘customs partnership’.
19. Irish Times, and other reports, 9 and 10.12.17.
20. Irish Times, 7.5.18.
21. Accusing the Dublin Fine Gael Government of using Brexit to get a ‘United Ireland’ is implausible for it has never been that party’s priority.
22. ‘Northern Ireland leader says special status for province possible after Brexit’, Reuters World News, 29.10.16.
23. Mrs. Foster, from a border community, was replaced as DUP borders spokesperson by MPs Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson who clearly knew less about the subject (e.g. sometimes they simply ignored the major problem of illegal movements).
24. Guardian 21.5.18. There was also significant support for illegal or extreme protests against any North-South border checks. And 53% of Catholics would vote for a United Ireland if there were a ‘hard’ land border (perhaps the DUP should think again).
25. Irish Times, 1.12.17. Of course, the very large majorities in the South were not counted: following traditional sovereignty conventions democracy stopped at the border despite the effects crossing it.
26. The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, UK Government Cm. 9593, 12 July 2018; and reports throughout July from pro- and anti-Brexit sources including the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian, Irish Independent, Irish News, Irish Times, Sunday Times and Times.
27. E.g. ‘hard’ Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg, Irish Times, 7.5.18. Many Irish people would reverse the proposition, seeing Brexit and a self-harming Britain undermining a friendly neighbouring country.
28. The anti-Brexit alliance of the SDLP, Sinn Fein, Green and Alliance parties would have a majority of 10 over the DUP and other Unionists if the 90-seat NI Assembly were functioning - a possible reason for the DUP blocking its re-establishment. A functioning Assembly would probably prefer the sea border alternative, whereas now the DUP is almost Northern Ireland’s only effective voice at Westminster.