Every day Eimear Coleman, a 29-year-old accountant, drives across the invisible line between Northern Ireland and Ireland twice to get to and from work. There is nothing to suggest that she has crossed a border beyond the fact that the speed limits go from miles per hour to kilometres.
The border itself is invisible but runs for 310 miles and, when Britain finally leaves the European Union, it will be the only place on land where it and the UK meet. For years now, a debate has raged between negotiators and politicians of all persuasions about how this will be managed after Brexit.
Eimear lives in Newry, County Down in Northern Ireland but works in the south. She lives 5 miles from the border and it’s a 20-minute commute to her office.
‘The uncertainty of Brexit is the main issue for me’ Eimear explains over the phone ‘we don’t really know what will happen, there’s talk of a harder border, of customs checks and nobody really seems to be able to tell us what that would look like.’
‘Right now, everything is so fluid, it doesn’t feel like there’s a border in the slightest. If there were to suddenly be one it would not only cause a huge amount of inconvenience, we are all very worried that it would cause civil unrest.’
As the clock counts down to March 29th when Britain’s time left as a member state of the European Union runs out, there isn’t much about Brexitthat feels finalised. All we do know is that we’re going down to the wire.
Of all the huge decisions yet to be made, what will happen to the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland has to be one of the most pressing because the potential repercussions of it are so great. From the get-go, it was one of the three key issues that EU negotiators wanted sorted out before a transition period and trade talks could even begin.
You’ve probably heard all of this referred to as ‘the backstop’. In a nutshell, that’s code for a backup plan for what happens if no agreement is reached on what happens along the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland before the end of 2020.
In November 2018, after months of negotiations back and forth and a deadlock, the UK and the EU published a draft agreement which included notes on what the backstop would be. It included extra checks on some goods coming into Northern Ireland from Britain and suggested keeping the UK in a customs union with the EU.
Brexiteers weren’t happy with this, the DUP wasn’t happy with this and Theresa May promised to sort it out. It’s now March, Theresa May has had an emergency meeting with Jean-Clause Juncker (the President of the European Commission) in Strasbourg and he has promised that the backstop won’t continue indefinitely but refused to negotiate further.
Which means we now face a week of crucial votes on how Brexit how will play out practically.
For Eimear and so many others, the daily uncertainty over their future is excruciating. ‘My work is stressful’ she says ‘because so many people don’t know what to expect from Brexit or what it will mean for Ireland. I remember the checkpoints from when I was a child. I was 8 years old when the Good Friday Agreement was signed’.
‘I would hate for us to ever go back to that considering the progress that has been made. It doesn’t bear thinking about.’
Elaine Doherty remembers life before the Good Friday Agreement all too well. Now a 53-year-old psychologist, she grew up in Derry.
‘I’ve lived here most of my life’ she explains ‘during the so-called troubles there was always a lot of tension in the air and there was violence, a lot of violence.’
As a child, Elaine remembers ‘gun battles, bombs going off and having to carry a hanky soaked in vinegar because, during the riots, the British Army would use CS gas.’
As a teenager, she recalls having to ‘go through the sort of turn styles you find at football matches just to get into the city and being searched.’ It meant there was ‘always a sense of militarisation…there were tanks and armed soldiers on the streets. It was a constant part of our life.’
‘Can you imagine’ Elaine asks me ‘every time you left your house to go to work, to the shop or to visit your parents that you always had to go through a checkpoint? It was a daily inspection – you were asked where you were going, where you were coming from, your age and whatever personal details they felt were relevant – nobody who has lived through that, who knows what The Troubles were like and appreciates the peace that we’ve had for the last 20 years as a consequence of the Good Friday agreement wants to go back to it – it’s a horrible thought. In fact, it’s just unthinkable’.
For Elaine, the significance of the Good Friday Agreement cannot be underestimated. It was a skilful endeavour of diplomacy which, as she puts it, ‘cleverly allowed the people of Northern Ireland to be both British and Irish.’
Both Elaine and Eimear feel that politicians in Westminster are failing to understand the nuance and delicacy of the Irish border or, rather, lack thereof. They feel that the discussion of Brexit and the backstop has treated Ireland and Northern Ireland like two different countries when, in fact, the Good Friday Agreement’s success hinged on enshrining fluidity between the two.
30-year-old Tanya McCamphill works in politics. She was so concerned that some politicians were missing the point about the border that she came up with the idea to start the campaign group Derry Girls Against Borders last year to lobby those in power on the issue and make the voices of people affected – which she felt were being left out of the debate - heard. Over 10,000 people backed the group’s petition.
‘It was a single aim campaign against Brexit borders’ she explains ‘our movement was a non-partisan, civic campaign focused on protecting the frictionless freedoms people currently have to move between these islands – Britain and Ireland’.
Tanya works in London but is from Derry, so she lives between the two. Her parents have a house in Donegal and she spends many weekends there. ‘I am often travelling from London to Belfast, then to Derry and then on to Donegal,’ she explains. ‘If there was a border, it would be a real hassle and nuisance but it runs deeper than that. If you’re from Ireland you feel like your identity is being called into question if there was any Brexit border, any sort of physical check would make it feel as though you were having to prove your right to travel around your own country.’
The campaign is now over, it was intended to raise awareness and Tanya feels it did that. Along with other members of the group she met with Michel Barnier – the EU’s chief negotiator last year. However, months later she still doesn’t feel that the issue is fully understood by those who will, ultimately, decide what happens next.
‘The political discussion is very focussed on economy and infrastructure questions, not the human impact’ she says.
It’s clear that none of these women takes peace in Ireland and Northern Ireland for granted. They see it as a fragile thing which is maintained by a carefully crafted political agreement that does the impossible by accommodating people of all political persuasions, religions and identities. Brexit, and the conversations about a border that come with it, presents a threat to that.
‘Everyone is fearful that there could be a return to some form of violence or conflict if there was a border again’ Elaine says. ‘But I think it’s important to point out that Brexit has already reignited tensions – I think it’s a very divisive and I think people have looked very closely again at their sense of identity – identifying with one religion or another, being a Brexiteer or not and I think that’s as true in Northern Ireland as it is in the UK. Borders are disruptive, they’re divisive. We need to keep moving forward. We cannot go backwards.’
The Good Friday Agreement has provided 20 years of peace for Ireland. It took 30 years of conflict, two years of talks and a dedicated team of negotiators to achieve. As things stand, nobody can agree on Brexit, let alone what it means for Ireland and Northern Ireland. Theresa May’s deal has yet to make it through Parliament and the backstop is a major reason why Britain might yet leave Europe without a deal.
‘They need to understand that in order to keep the peace on this island we need to have fluidity’ Eimear concludes ‘you can’t compare it to Norway or anywhere else for that matter because the situation here is so specific. This is about so much more than what it means for my commute, for trade, for the economy or for politics. I see myself as Irish, this is about identity. I don’t think politicians in Westminster appreciate how important it is not to feel that there is a border here, not to feel like there are two separate countries’