153
votes
Accepted
Why can't Northern Ireland just have a stay/leave referendum?
If you don't understand Irish history then you can't understand anything about Northern Ireland.
Briefly, the whole of Ireland used to be part of the British Empire. This was due to some uncommonly ...
- 18.3k
145
votes
Why is it impossible to leave the Single Market without a hard Irish border?
In the strictest sense, it is of course possible; but it doesn’t make any sense, unless Brexit is only for symbolism.
The whole point of Brexit (beside the symbolism) and of leaving the single market ...
- 5,761
68
votes
Can Northern Ireland's border issue be solved by repartition?
"Northern Ireland" itself was created by a variation of that process: there was a referendum on whether to become independent after the Irish War Of Independence, and those electoral regions which ...
- 21.7k
60
votes
Accepted
Why don't hard Brexiteers insist on a hard border to prevent illegal immigration after Brexit?
What I still don't understand is this: for hard-Brexiteers, taking back control of the UK borders to limit immigration is a major outcome of Brexit.
The UK's immigration controls are already ...
- 16.4k
53
votes
Why is it impossible to leave the Single Market without a hard Irish border?
The EU has customs at its borders. This allows it to, for example, collect tariffs on imports from the USA. So suppose the EU sets a 10% tariff on US cars. Now when a car moves from the US to Belfast, ...
- 106k
47
votes
Why are the nationalists and unionists in Ireland & Northern Ireland OK with using violence?
Shall we start by seeing how historical violence is viewed by some people in Northern Ireland? There's still quite a lot of murals around. Just to be absolutely clear in case the imagery isn't obvious,...
- 21.7k
46
votes
Can Northern Ireland's border issue be solved by repartition?
The problem of Brexit for Northern Ireland isn't what you think it is. It has little to do with the distribution of the population. It's about cross-border trade and co-operation between Protestants ...
- 1,551
44
votes
Accepted
What do hard-Brexiteers want with respect to the Irish border?
They tend to think it's somebody else's problem (Ireland's and/or the DUP's). Unless you are part of the DUP of course. See how Rees-Mogg has been punting the problem along the lines of: I agree with ...
- 125k
44
votes
Accepted
Could the same person be First Minister in Northern Ireland and Taoiseach in the Republic of Ireland?
No, under Section 19A of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, as amended by the Disqualifications Act 2000 and the Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006, which states that "No person may be ...
CDJB♦
- 96.2k
41
votes
Why don't hard Brexiteers insist on a hard border to prevent illegal immigration after Brexit?
This is why. Last time there were border posts, the IRA blew them up.
Today (10 April 2019) is the 21st anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
- 21.7k
40
votes
Why can't Northern Ireland just have a stay/leave referendum?
Northern Ireland is a net recipient rather than contributor to the UK economy (Scotland and Wales are too actually). It takes more money than it contributes. England is the wealthiest country in the ...
- 3,433
39
votes
Accepted
Why is it impossible to leave the Single Market without a hard Irish border?
I'm looking for something of the ilk of a technical/legal reason,
not one that is about negotiating stances or consequences or political inconveniences that go "against Brexit". I'll give 2
...
- 3,584
39
votes
Why isn't the Republic of Ireland a member of the Five Eyes Security Alliance?
Ireland has had a policy of neutrality as far as international relations are concerned since WWII. Although this has never been formally codified in their constitution, and indeed recently such an ...
CDJB♦
- 96.2k
38
votes
Why can't Northern Ireland just have a stay/leave referendum?
This is in answer to the sub-question:
since you mention Gerry Adams was needed in the agreement, does this
mean Ireland supports the unrest in Northern Ireland? If so, can the
UK simply ...
- 21.7k
32
votes
What do hard-Brexiteers want with respect to the Irish border?
The brexiteers don't really want anything regarding the Irish border. It's just a problem preventing them getting the hard brexit that they want, and since they don't have a real solution for it they ...
- 17.6k
32
votes
Would the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland be interested in reuniting?
Irish Nationalists, mostly from the Catholic community, have been trying to achieve an independent and unified Ireland for hundreds of years.
Before 1921 the whole of Ireland was part of the United ...
- 106k
30
votes
Why can't Northern Ireland just have a stay/leave referendum?
The Good Friday Agreement ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland between Unionists (British/Protestant) and Nationalists (Irish/Catholic). It did this, in part, by essentially allowing two ...
- 409
29
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't UK consider Ireland a foreign country for the purpose of British law?
Ireland is a foreign country in British Law. But as a result of shared history and a succession of treaties, the two independent countries grant a variety of rights to each others citizens. This is a ...
- 106k
28
votes
Accepted
Why is having border controls in Ireland so problematic for Irish nationalists?
For Irish Nationalists, the Irish state is composed of all 32 counties on the island of Ireland. The nationalist view is that 6 of these are currently occupied by the British (see Why don't Sinn F&...
- 106k
28
votes
Accepted
Do Ireland and the United Kingdom have a trade alliance similar to NAFTA?
No. Prior to Brexit the UK and Ireland were in the EU single market. Post Brexit the UK is a third country while Ireland remains in the EU. The UK has to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the EU ...
- 22.7k
26
votes
Accepted
Would it be plausible to solve the Irish Border issue by unifying Ireland?
Solution 1: Have Northern Ireland merge with the Irish Republic so that the entire island is the Irish Republic. In that scenario, ALL of Ireland would be in the EU and the Irish border would ...
JJJ♦
- 38.2k
26
votes
Accepted
Brexit and backstop: would changes require unanimous approval by all EU countries? Does Ireland hold a veto?
The withdrawal agreement requires a qualified majority by the remaining EU members (Article 50 section 4).
Any extension of the negotiating period must be unanimous (Article 50 section 3).
EU members ...
- 97.2k
23
votes
Can Northern Ireland's border issue be solved by repartition?
The only reason a peace deal exists today is because it was a deal that let everyone in Northern Ireland act as if they were living in the country of their choice, with the citizenship of their choice....
- 12.9k
23
votes
Why isn't the Republic of Ireland a member of the Five Eyes Security Alliance?
and sharing the same views regarding Global security.
I think this is a fundamental flaw in your viewpoint. Ireland has demonstrated a very different viewpoint from the UK and US and their primary ...
- 2,965
22
votes
Accepted
Will there be a border between Ireland and the UK if they can't agree on a deal?
It is not WTO rules which require a hard border, it is regulatory divergence.
There will be a border in any scenario short of Irish unification. The Good Friday agreement says that it will be a soft ...
- 97.2k
22
votes
Why don't hard Brexiteers insist on a hard border to prevent illegal immigration after Brexit?
This is more of an addition to phoog's answer, but I think it's an important enough point to emphasize separately, as it seems a common source of confusion. Phoog said:
The question of immigration ...
- 125k
22
votes
Accepted
What is the EU official position on Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 border?
Yes, the EU diplomatic service has made a Statement:
The EU reiterates its position that all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law and the EU will not ...
- 106k
20
votes
Accepted
IRA's approach to Brexit
Existence and position of the IRA
What is the IRA official approach to Brexit and what is their attitude?
The Provisional IRA was a secretive terrorist organisation, organised in cells to prevent ...
- 11.3k
20
votes
What do hard-Brexiteers want with respect to the Irish border?
I'm a Remainer, but have been accused of being a Hard Brexiter on some stances in this debate, so I'll take a stab. The WTO, the Repubic of Ireland, the UK and the EU have all recently made ...
- 2,090
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible