Britain's Brexit Movement

IRELAND WAS PART of the British Empire till it won independence in 1922. Ironically, it is Ireland which could trigger events that lead to the eventual dismemberment of the United Kingdom.

- Minhaz Merchant

Whether or not Britain leaves the European Union (EU) on October 31 with or without a deal, with or without an extension, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is playing a game of political poker with Ireland as the joker in the pack. The island of Ireland is split between the Irish Republic (a keen member of the EU) and Northern Ireland which is part of the UK.

Physical customs checks post-Brexit between the two Irelands – or on the Irish Sea between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland – will almost certainly revive sectarian hostility between Catholic Irish Republic and Protestant-majority Northern Ireland. Those hostilities led to terror attacks and violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland for decades, claiming thousands of lives. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during a Tory party conference at a Brighton hotel in 1984. The violence subsided after the “Good Friday” agreement in 1998 that formed a power-sharing compact in Northern Ireland between warring Protestants (who want to stay with the UK) and Catholics (who want reunification of the two Irelands).

Irish Republic Prime Minister Leo Varadkar (whose father Ashok is Indian) holds the key to whether Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan floats or sinks. Brexit is hostage to history. Before 1707, England was a mid-sized European power, constantly at war not only with France and Spain but also with Scotland, then an independent nation to its north. The United Kingdom did not exist. In 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland merged to form the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”.