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BELFAST – Charlie Butler's concerns over the proposal to let the European Union retain its influence over Northern Ireland after the withdrawal of the British bloc help to explain why this British region is the main obstacle to reaching an agreement on the Brexit.
"Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom," said the owner of a 65-year-old social club who was attending the commemoration of a memorial commemorating the victims of the bomb blast. Irish Republican Army in 1993, which killed his niece and grandmother. The whole United Kingdom has to leave the bloc under the same conditions, he said. "Do you take towns and villages? So half is part of Europe but their neighbors are not?
The invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is a major point of contention as Britain tries to separate from the European Union before March 29, 2019. The withdrawal requires agreement on how to avoid a physical border between the Republic and the North.
The people of Belfast recently attended a memorial service in honor of the 10 people killed during a 1993 bombing by the Irish Republican Army on Shankill Road. Below, Charlie Butler, left, who lost two of his family during the bombing, and Joe Stewart, center, participated.
London and Brussels agree that the border – the only land border between the two sides – should not become an obstacle to cross-border trade and travel for residents of both parts of the island after Brexit . But they can not agree on how to make sure this does not happen.
The EU's solution is to ensure that Northern Ireland complies with the bloc's product regulations and remains in its customs zone in case the two parties can not agree on a trade agreement avoiding a physical boundary. But such a support plan would create new economic barriers between the Irish Sea and Northern Ireland and Britain.
This prospect looks bad in the streets around Shankill Road in Belfast, where there are wall paintings of Queen Elizabeth and the pro-British party. Terrorist groups leave no doubt about the British legacy of the largely Protestant trade union community in the region, which favors maintaining Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom.
"We should suffer all the EU laws that they decide. Why should we? We all had the same vote. Why should we be treated differently? Said 51-year-old seamstress Agnes Harvey, working at a Shankill Road store where a child's Union Jack waistcoat was waiting to be darned.
Joe Stewart, 66, a retired shipyard worker, said he was not convinced that a safety plan would be necessary because modern technology should make customs checks or other inspections unnecessary. the Irish border. "We can put people on the moon. It's crazy, he says.
The UK's decision to leave the EU in 2016 upset the fire of a conflagration that claimed the lives of more than 3,500 people until a 1998 peace agreement ended decades of conflict. violence.
This Good Friday agreement has set up a regional administration that brings together the representatives of the majority of trade unionists from Northern Ireland and its mostly Irish Catholic nationalists, who want to put an end to British rule in Northern Ireland and to unite with the Republic of Ireland.
A message painted on the side of a house in Belfast pleaded for the vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
In London and Dublin, officials fear that a botched Brexit may revive the conflict if Irish nationalists feel cut off from the Republic or trade unionists from the UK.
British Prime Minister Theresa May rejected the proposal for support and proposed keeping the entire UK in the EU's customs territory until a long-term trade pact is signed. The EU is resisting this approach.
"I think that if a difficult frontier arose, the times would be tough," said Sylvia Martin, 54, owner of a coffee shop on Belfast's Falls Road, a largely nationalist Irish region. "It only takes a small percentage of people to go out and cause problems."
Sylvia Martin, owner of a cafe in Belfast, worries about violence if Brexit negotiators fail to avoid erecting a physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic d & # 39; Ireland.
For some members of the nationalist community, Brexit represents an opportunity to advance the cause of Irish unity. Gerry Foster, 56, who served a prison sentence as a member of the Irish National Liberation Army, a violent anti-British terrorist group, said Brexit "has changed the whole political dynamic here in the North".
Mr. Foster stated that he thought that if a poll was held to ask the people of Northern Ireland that he wished to unite with the Republic, he hoped the result would be positive by securing the support of Irish nationalists as well as a minority of trade unionists eager to preserve their European status. . Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU from 56% to 44%.
London and Dublin say it is not a good time to hold a referendum on Irish unity and recent polls suggest that a slim majority would vote to stay in the UK.
For trade unionists, the urgent goal is to ensure that Northern Ireland is not treated differently from the rest of the UK under a Brexit agreement. Ms. May's room for maneuver is limited by her political alliance with the extremist trade unionists of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, which she needs to maintain power.
Although Northern Ireland has gained special importance in the Brexit negotiations, its voters, like those in the rest of the UK, are tired of the tedious process of separating the UK from the EU.
Neil Pierce, owner of a clothing store in the Shankill Road trade union area in Belfast, said he was tired of hearing about the Brexit process.
"I'm tired of listening to it," said Neil Pierce, 53, owner of a clothing store at Shankill Road.
Harry Curran, 40, who runs a flower shop on Falls Road, said he has already seen the stock prices he imported from Holland rise as a result of the weakness of the pound since the Brexit referendum. Although the stalemate over Northern Ireland raised fears that Britain would exit the EU in March without an agreement, a potentially damaging outcome for Northern Ireland's economy was announced.
"All of this will be reduced to pounds and pennies," he said. "When there is money at stake, there will be compromises."
Mural of Queen Elizabeth II along Shankill Road.
Write to Jason Douglas at [email protected]
