As long as the rest of the UK gets to make trade deals without reference to the EU I’m happy. If neccessary we can just bribe the DUP with cash and enshrine it in an act of Parliament like the Barnett formula with Scotland so they’ll have something to take to their supporters as a win. That way Northern Ireland benefits from Brexit but the Unionists get to stay in the UK but the Irish get to continue their defacto union with the rest of Ireland. They’re only a province of about 1.5 million people so we can take the hit.
I wouldn’t rest your hopes too much on the Northern Irish wanting to leave the UK though, according to the last census the catholic population of NI is still just a little over 40%, but 13% of Catholics actually identify as British (and some will identify as Irish but support the union for pragmatic reasons) wheras only 2.1% identify as Irish, so the protestant community is more fiercely pro-British than the Catholic community is pro-Irish identity. As anyone who knows anything about northern ireland knows, identity is everything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Northern_Ireland
The only rational reason for a delay is to give foreigners enough time to overwhelm the British patriots to either revoke or dilute leaving the EUSSR.
Technically all of the UK can make a trade deal post Brexit without reference to the EU.
The only thing would be that goods/services sent to NI would need to follow EU regulations.
This looks like a win-win for all sides.
DUP’s followers are eroding. There is no need for a bribe for them.
England-Wales would be better off without Northern Ireland economically, politically and diplomatically.
The NI/RoI divide is no longer seen as purely sectarian, due to the increasing secularisation of both states and also because the RoI has quite a few Protestants doing quite well.
More and more see themselves as “Irish” - and religion (or lack of it) as something separate.
thanks for the illuminating capsule summary of ni identity politics