Northern Ireland unionists and republicans among Brexit backers
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Version 0 of 1. The Brexit campaign in Northern Ireland has created some strange bedfellows, bringing together Tory unionist peers and dissident republicans opposed to the Good Friday agreement. The Nobel peace prize winner David Trimble and two other ex-Ulster Unionist grandees have joined up with former unionist rivals including the DUP first minister, Arlene Foster, in calling for an out vote to leave on Thursday, though the current Ulster Unionist leader, Mike Nesbitt, backs remain. Attacking EU membership on another front are republican dissident forces who see fresh opportunities to make political ground. Éirígí (Gaelic for “rising”), formed out of disaffected Sinn Féin members who opposed the party’s drift towards historic compromise with unionism in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is the most explicit about wanting the UK to leave the EU. Its west Belfast spokesman Pádraic Mac Coitir says the party’s support for Brexit reflects its wider anti-imperialist position that sees the EU as part of a capitalist/neoliberal plot. Other republican dissidents said privately that they would be delighted with a Brexit vote. They whisper that if the British restore any form of controls on the border with the Irish Republic, they will be able to argue that London has torn up a key element of the Good Friday agreement. In addition, border crossings could become symbolic targets for the New IRA and other organisations still dedicated to armed struggle. Theresa Villiers, the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary, who is pro-Brexit, has said avote to leave would not necessarily lead to Irish border controls. However, Ireland’s former taoiseach Bertie Ahern pointed out this month that it seemed illogical to promise that Brexit would lead to sealing off British borders while allowing the land frontier with an EU country to remain open. |