Ex-IRA Man Says Brexit Threatens Economy Not Peace in Ireland
Ex-IRA Man Says Brexit Threatens Economy Not Peace in Ireland
(Bloomberg) -- When it comes to Brexit, worry about jobs, not guns: that’s the message from a former Irish Republican Army man jailed for his part in the violence that racked Northern Ireland for almost three decades.
Now 65, Tommy McKearney was imprisoned in 1976 for killing a part-time soldier. He spent 53 days on hunger strike in 1980, and after his eventual release settled close to the border which will form the United Kingdom’s only land frontier with the European Union after Brexit.
“There is little or no appetite for a return to violent conflict and the support necessary to maintain a campaign does not exist,” said McKearney. “Most republicans that I speak with tend to see Brexit as an economic issue rather than a democratic matter.”
The issue erupted last week after U.K. rejected any notion of a special status for Northern Ireland, which could remove the need for a return of the border. During the conflict, the British army closed more than 200 border roads, according to Dublin City University’s Brexit Institute, by destroying bridges, creating physical barriers and cratering roads.
The border issue puts Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in a tricky position as he considers whether to use the veto that the EU has given him in Brexit talks. He doesn’t want to stall negotiations from moving on to the future trade deal that is vital to Irish economy -- yet that very threat gives him leverage to extract guarantees from the U.K. that would keep the border open.
How real a threat is Brexit to the peace process? Here’s a selection of voices from the border.
Tommy McKearney
To suggest a hard border will result in armed checkpoints is “a non sequitur,” McKearney said.
“Why would the British government risk upsetting a stable and peaceful situation by putting troops along the border knowing that it would not achieve anything useful?”
Arlene Foster
DUP leader Foster, 47, was a small girl when the IRA shot her father, a part-time policeman, close to the border, but she agrees with McKearney on the border question.
“It is scaremongering to make claims about peace in Northern Ireland and given the challenges we still face it is deeply irresponsible. Those making these claims never specify what the source of this violence would be. Despite some of the wild claims, the European Union did not secure peace in Northern Ireland.”
“In attempting to use peace here as a bargaining chip, those making such claims only make life more difficult for those of us working daily in Northern Ireland to cement the progress we have already made and overcome those obstacles that still face us.”
Tony McPhillips
Former councilor McPhillips, 54, from the border village of Rosslea in Fermanagh, opposed the Good Friday peace agreement and says there’ll always be some form of resistance “be that armed or political” to “Britain’s occupation in Ireland.”
“If the British sought to impose a more public manifestation of their occupation by the imposition of a visible militarized border on the island, then I believe that this in itself could indeed be the catalyst required to embolden an armed republican campaign.”
Still, violence is “counter productive to attempts to rebuild a meaningful and relevant Irish Republican platform and only feed the prejudices of those who oppose Irish Republicanism.”
Father Joe McVeigh
Father Joe McVeigh, 72, a member of lobby group Border Communities Against Brexit, says the physical border “symbolized the British occupation of part of Ireland.”
“Any kind of physical border was anathema to Irish republicans,” he said. Still, any attempt to resort to armed force, said McVeigh, would not have widespread support. “I do not believe there will be a return to violence by Irish republicans.”
Tom Elliot
During the Troubles, Tom Elliott, 53, a part time solider policed Fermanagh’s border with counties Cavan and Donegal three nights a week.
While he doesn’t think there will be a return to conflict, he said there may be individuals or small terror groups "who will carry out acts of murder, attempted murder and destruction."
To contact the reporter on this story: Rodney Edwards in London at redwards102@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net, Dara Doyle, Emma Ross-Thomas
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