The pivotal position of the Irish border in the UK's withdrawal from the European Union

ABSTRACT

This paper shows why the Northern Ireland/Ireland border moved from a marginal to a core concern in the UK’s withdrawal from the EU (‘Brexit’). Drawing on longitudinal research on the impact of the EU on the Irish border, and contemporaneous research on the Phase 1 of negotiations of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, it explains this case study through three broad themes. First, the impact of EU membership on the transformation of the border and, secondly, the challenges posed by Brexit to the border in practical and symbolic terms. Finally, it analyses how these have been addressed in the call for ‘specific solutions’ to meet the UK’s ambition of ‘avoiding a hard border’ after withdrawal. In so doing, it explores the ways in which the multi-layered complexities of a small, peripheral geographical region came to influence the course of the UK’s most important set of international negotiations for half a century.

KEYWORDS:

• Brexit
• European Union
• Irish border
• Northern Ireland
• peace process

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Katy Hayward is Reader in Sociology, Queen's University Belfast and Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute of Global Peace, Security and Justice. She has 20 years' research experience on the impact of the EU on the Irish border and peace process, including as part of the EU FP5-funded EUBorderConf [EU & border conflicts] project and the Canadian SSHRC-funded ‘Borders in Globalization’ programme. Dr Hayward has presented widely on the topic of Brexit and Northern Ireland/Ireland to public, policy, civic and academic audiences.

Notes

1. Phrase taken from the Preamble to the British-Irish Agreement (1998).

Additional information

Funding

This research has benefited by funding from the Borders in Globalization project, of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.