Brexit threatens Northern Irish peace, academic study finds
Protections for human rights and equality across island of Ireland will be weakened, researchers say
Knowing the Graun as I do, I expected some watering down in the article itself, but there is still lots of loud pedal. The full Report is launched tomorrow but the claims that interested the Gudrina are:
Although there is a hint of partisanship in the last sentence (and the universities concerned are both in Ulster), 'The academics in the BrexitLawNI umbrella group found widespread concern about the long-term impact of Brexit on the relationship between the people of the entire island of Ireland.'[depending on how they actually saw Brexit, of course --hard border?]. The study invovled 'in-depth interviews, town hall meetings and consultations with authorities'. [what was the context of the questions and interviews?]
The BrexitLawNI group seems pukka enough even if it does have the EU emblem on its masthead: it's homepage says it is: 'a collaborative ESRC-funded research project between the Law Schools of Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University and the region’s leading human rights organisation, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ).'
At last, when we get to more substance, the language becomes more conditional and cautious. A spokesperson said that 'connections carefully constructed between once-rival communities remained vulnerable [always, I imagine] and that Brexit risked [my emphasis] breaking those relationships...Brexit may [me again] impose limits on this cooperation in border communities'. Not much more detail is added though. We are told that 'The EU has also funded businesses in areas riven by violence, which conventional banks and financiers would have considered too risky.', and there are 'concerns over the future of all-island healthcare services. “With a population of 1.8 million, it would not be possible to provide certain specialised medical services in the region,”' Currently, certain medical services are available to all citizens on the island of Ireland [the economics of health provision would continue, so why would policy change?].
The worst case seems to depend on a hard border, which the UK Government has ruled out categorically. As argued below, the EC seems to be the only body advocating 'proper' borders. However, remedies seem quite available too:
Knowing the Graun as I do, I expected some watering down in the article itself, but there is still lots of loud pedal. The full Report is launched tomorrow but the claims that interested the Gudrina are:
Brexit will threaten peace in Northern Ireland, disrupt cross-border cooperation and create potentially lethal divides between British and Irish people in Northern Ireland, an 18-month study by academics has found...In the most comprehensive study of the impact leaving the EU will have on the region, researchers also found that Brexit was seen as “manna from heaven” for Sinn Fein as it “mainstreamed” the topic of unification.[Surely Sinn Fein needs no pretext for that, and demands for a separate place for NI still inside the EU as the EC proposed would also be grist to their mill?]
Although there is a hint of partisanship in the last sentence (and the universities concerned are both in Ulster), 'The academics in the BrexitLawNI umbrella group found widespread concern about the long-term impact of Brexit on the relationship between the people of the entire island of Ireland.'[depending on how they actually saw Brexit, of course --hard border?]. The study invovled 'in-depth interviews, town hall meetings and consultations with authorities'. [what was the context of the questions and interviews?]
The BrexitLawNI group seems pukka enough even if it does have the EU emblem on its masthead: it's homepage says it is: 'a collaborative ESRC-funded research project between the Law Schools of Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University and the region’s leading human rights organisation, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ).'
At last, when we get to more substance, the language becomes more conditional and cautious. A spokesperson said that 'connections carefully constructed between once-rival communities remained vulnerable [always, I imagine] and that Brexit risked [my emphasis] breaking those relationships...Brexit may [me again] impose limits on this cooperation in border communities'. Not much more detail is added though. We are told that 'The EU has also funded businesses in areas riven by violence, which conventional banks and financiers would have considered too risky.', and there are 'concerns over the future of all-island healthcare services. “With a population of 1.8 million, it would not be possible to provide certain specialised medical services in the region,”' Currently, certain medical services are available to all citizens on the island of Ireland [the economics of health provision would continue, so why would policy change?].
The worst case seems to depend on a hard border, which the UK Government has ruled out categorically. As argued below, the EC seems to be the only body advocating 'proper' borders. However, remedies seem quite available too:
[There is a ] clear need to lay down new protocols to preserve coexistence of communities and joint services to mitigate against the risks of the split on the island....It [the Report] recommends that the assumption that British and Irish citizens will continue to have the right to move freely between the two islands under the common travel area body of agreements and protocols is laid down in new legal codes [EU law is already preserved in UK law I understand,although a UK version of ECJ rights would need to be established?]. It notes there is no visible movement on this front in the UK or Ireland...[and whose fault is that -- the EC is still holding on to the Irish Question as a major obstacle] The Home Office hostile environment policy [on migrants -- itis already being softened?] should not be rolled out in Ireland and official initiatives should be launched to tackle racial profiling, intimidation and violence, it says.[You can't accuse the UK of standing aside on those -- 40 years of The Troubles would remind it?]
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