Irish border: Will Brexit undermine unionism?
Complex questions surrounding how Brexit will work in Ireland聽risk undermining the need for a border - and the union itself.
Wednesday 16 August 2017 16:56, UK
After decades of trying to remove the border from Irish politics, Brexit has placed it slap bang at the top the political agenda again.
And it is unionism which, somewhat ironically, has placed it there.
Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union, but 44% voted to leave. Most of them were unionists and most of them voted for the DUP.
Arlene Foster's party campaigned vigorously for Brexit, claiming the "European Union is pulling power and decision-making further away".
And while she lost her battle, the leavers won the war.
But in the aftermath of the referendum, the complex questions about how the practicalities of Brexit will work in Ireland risk undermining what the DUP cares about most - the union itself.
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A hard border existed for decades. It led to long waits at security check points as inspections were carried out on vehicles deemed suspicious.
Growing up along that border in the late '80s and '90s, I remember the bomb-proof huts, the watch towers, the long traffic queues.
The Good Friday Agreement saw those border checks literally demolished.
The 310-mile line dividing Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland then became all but invisible; road markings and different signage the only obvious mark that you had changed country.
No need for customs checks or immigration control, both countries being members of the European Union.
But Brexit is changing that - and is it in turn undermining unionism?
The Government's custom Brexit plans will at very least involve more red tape and thus likely higher costs to cross the Irish border.
At worst, if it doesn't work, it could severely hamper trade over that border and hamper communities that straddle that border.
And if it starts harming people's businesses, jobs, farms - will it not start to undermine people's want for that border?
Recent polls give unionism a majority in Northern Ireland. Around 25% of Catholics are part of that majority - though their support is more likely based on a rational economic case rather than any emotional attachment to Britain.
If the border is economically damaging, will that support falter?
And then take immigration.
At the moment, the Republic of Ireland and the UK are part of the Common Travel Area - so you can travel from Dublin to Belfast without checks; you can travel from Dublin to London without checks.
At the moment a Spanish national can fly into Dublin, pass through passport control and then enter the UK without further checks.
If Brexit was about controlling immigration, will that not change? The Government argues it won't.
But what if it does? It seems almost inevitable those checks will take place at the ports and airports in Northern Ireland, not on the actual land border; practically moving the border to the Irish Sea and undermining Northern Ireland's place with the United Kingdom.
Arlene Foster argued Brexit presented opportunities for the province - three months into negotiations, it has presented nothing but problems.
But more importantly for the DUP and unionism, instead of reinforcing the border, the divide between north and south, Brexit risks calling into question its practical need.