Ireland and Brexit - A Positive Way Of Looking At It

Occassionally I see someone complaining that the English ignore Ireland.   I don't see it very often though because, well err....  Maybe they've got a point.  I have visited Ireland, north and south, from time to time.  But it doesn't really have a big part of my attention.   However I am aware that the island is divided and that not much short of a million of my fellow UK citizens would really much rather not be fellow UK citizens.   I don't like nationalism as an idealology.  But national identity is a totally different thing which deserves respect.  So if those guys want to be Irish, it's not for me to disagree.


This is an unusual problem in the UK where the different national identities generally get along and aren't too fussed by having effectively dual overlapping loyalties.  I usually describe myself as British but I know who to support when England are playing Scotland.  But there are lots of knotty problems like Northern Ireland around Europe where identity is potentially the cause of conflict. 

It turns out that the European Union is a pretty good way of diffusing these problems.  People who think of themselves as Irish can live in the UK but simply choose to ignore the fact.  They can move freely over the border which requires no policing.  It's a great solution.

I'll be completely honest and admit that none of this dawned on me until after the vote.  But I did catch up in the end.   I am rather afraid that Brexit supporting politicians still haven't twigged what the problem is.  It isn't about technology or infrastructure.  It's about identity.  As such it isn't really amenable to any of the solutions that they have proposed.  The only way we can leave the EU without causing problems in Northern Ireland is finding some way of respecting the identities of the people who identify as British and the one that identify as Irish. 

I don't think this is as impossible as it sounds, though it does need to be grasped in the first place.  But maybe the answer is to create a European Citizen status which would allow people from Ireland to live in the UK while still being European citizens but with all the rights of UK citizens.  In fact, that sounds like quite an attractive option for a lot of us who don't live in Northern Ireland. 

I am writing this on the morning of Boris Johnson's big speech at the Tory Party conference.  I wonder if he is thinking along the same lines?