'The guns are back out again': Northern Ireland fears a Brexit border will escalate violence

Business Insider ^ | September 8, 2019 | Adam Payne

[KC_Lion]

NORTHERN IRELAND & LONDON — "I'm starting to hear things that I haven't heard in a long time," Eileen Weir told Business Insider.

"There was a republican funeral here yesterday and they shot over the coffin. I know that's a matter of honour for that fallen comrade, but at the same time, the IRA said all of there guns were out of use, so where did they get that gun?"

Weir runs a cross-community women's centre in Shankill, west Belfast. Shankill was a focus of violence during The Troubles. Irish republican and unionist paramilitaries carried out lethal bomb attacks and shootings on its residents.

"There were five bombs all within half a mile," Weir said, pointing out of her office window.

"I witnessed one when I was 16 or 17 years of age. I was walking down the Shankill and the Four Step Inn [pub] was blown up." Two people died in that particular attack by the provisional Irish Republican Army.

....

However, the UK government's "Yellowhammer" report into the potential effects of a no-deal Brexit, leaked to The Sunday Times newspaper, suggested that this would not be sustainable. The European Union is preparing to introduce customs and regulatory checks in order to protect the European single market.

However, the threat of increased terrorist activity is not the only concern here.

The Yellowhammer report also warned there would be protests and direct action in Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal exit.

The concern is that if infrastructure is installed on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, ordinary members of the public will try to take it down themselves in widespread civil disobedience. This in turn could turn to violence.

[Rockingham]

The British would be wise to find a way to finesse the issue. This could be done by establishing Northern Ireland as a special customs zone, permitting free trade and movement with the Irish Republic but re-establishing customs and immigration barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain.

[Cronos]

That is the only solution.

However, in may 2017 Theresa had an unnecessary election in which she lost the Tory majority and had to get into a coalition with the northern Irish party the DUP which opposes what you described.

Since then, everything is stuck. Thanks to the DUP

[Rockingham]

Since Boris wants the government dissolved, adopting the plan that I have described ought to do nicely as a way to get the DUP to help trigger an election.

[Cronos]

How? Labour won’t vote in a no confidence vote

[Rockingham]

I do not think that Labour can maintain that stance for long in the face of votes that show the Tories no longer have a governing coalition due to the defection of the DUP and that a hard Brexit is going to happen. As Theresa May learned, the public tends to punish MPs whose party is trying to game them for electoral advantage.