There is an underlying vibe these days in sean Dún na nGall.
It is rarely mentioned as you go about your day and daily, but it occasionally surfaces only for it to be quickly put away again.
In fairness, I’m not surprised that no one wants to face up to the prospect of the return of that thing down the road.
Yeah, that yoke that we thought we had seen the back of for good.
Sadly, the Bullingdon Boy in Number Ten seems to have other ideas.
I doubt that he has ever been to Bridgend, Lifford or Magherabeg.
Anyone with the facility of reason would see on the ground that these places were never meant to be part of an international frontier.
I wrote this in January when I was driving Baby Doctor to her rural GP placement.
Of course, in 1922 that’s exactly what happened and the Border banished generation of folk in north Donegal to a choice between penury and emigration.
It put up barriers between places like Inishowen and Derry.
Moreover, it was the death sentence to the railway lines that linked the various communities in this part of Ulster.
For the avoidance of doubt, Partition didn’t invent the poverty or emigration dilemma for people here, but it did make it worse.
The rule of the British landlords made it an ever-present question in the minds of the young.
Especially once they realised just how constricted their life chances were as “mere Irish”.
Some left and some remained and the parting was painful.
This place is well named.
Droichead na nDeor…
I have no doubt that there were tears and plenty of them.
Thankfully, these are different days there are no more American Wakes.
Indeed, it is now a rite of passage for many Irish millennials to take a couple of years in Australia and come back home with a boosted bank balance.
It isn’t a one-way ticket.
However, the tension in the soggy Donegal air these days is about the return of Checkpoint Charles at Strabane.
The folk memories that trouble us are about coffins here and not coffin ships crossing the Atlantic.
At this point, I realise that there is an impenetrable force field around senior British political decisions takers about anything that might impact on this island from their decisions.
I suppose it has always been thus.
One thing that is ever since the Brexit vote is that a polity based in Ireland had more geopolitical clout that the one in London.
I think it is fair to say that the “Let’s Take Back Control” chaps didn’t game that one out so well.
Now the Boris fella has made a move straight out of the divide et impera playbook that he learned about in Eton.
He is trying to separate Ireland from our gallant allies in Europe.
Speaking on RTE Radio One this morning the Tánaiste Simon Coveney said:
“There is a consequence to the approach that the British government is taking and that consequence is that they are making a no-deal far more likely.
“There is a reason why Boris Johnson is visiting Berlin today and Paris tomorrow, to try to talk to EU leaders about finding a way forward.
“I think he will get a very consistent message from EU leaders that the negotiations over the last two to three years are not going to be abandoned now
“We will try and find a way to give the reassurance and clarification that Boris Johnson needs to sell a deal.
“We will try and be imaginative about that and be helpful on that.”
He added that a promise from Prime Minister Boris Johnson wasn’t that attractive:
“We are not going to abandon a solution that we know works for some kind of promise on the basis of trust that we will all work together to try and find a solution and muddle on in the future to solve the border.
“If we do that, what we will be doing is we will creating collateral damage in Ireland to solve a problem in Westminster and for the next number of years, the border issue will dominate Irish politics, north and south because we haven’t resolved it in the way we that know we can.
“We are not in the business of facilitating the UK effectively moving away from commitments they have made to Ireland and the EU to protect the Good Friday agreement, to protect an all-island economy, and to replace that with some sort of make-shift deal in the weeks before a no-deal, that isn’t what we are going to do.”
Allow me to translate.
The Brits can feck right off with their Perfidious Albion reunion tour!
The gas thing is that Simon Coveney is probably the least likely chap in Dáil Éireann to be pulling on the green jersey.
However, we are living through altered times.
Over a decade ago I was invited down to Cork to speak at a conference and I had dinner with him and his local Fine Gael colleagues.
I was the only non-Blueshirt at the table.
My recollection is that he was personable and intelligent.
I think he would admit that Partition wouldn’t have kept him up at night.
In many regards, he presented as the classic Free State politician in the 21st century.
A product of revisionism.
Seán Lemass he certainly isn’t and neither is his boss Leo Varadkar.
Before going to Trinity the current Taoiseach was privately educated at the King’s Hospital in County Dublin.
It is fair to say that the Church of Ireland school in Palmerstown isn’t exactly a Fenian factory!
However, the happenstance of history has contrived to give Leo and Simon a very serious job to do.
The universe has dropped into their collective laps the task of facing down the Bullingdon Boy at this crucial juncture in the story of the Irish nation’s journey away from London’s orbit.
As it stands we are ten weeks away in Donegal from facing a situation that demands some form of a hard border between this house and my friends and comrades in Derry.
I have a sense of foreboding that no one in London is really paying attention to what could ultimately unravel here.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
It is my understanding that such a hard border would be against the spirit AND terms of the 1998 ‘Got Feck All’ agreement…if so God help us all. HH
Boris, Gove, Reece-Mogg…..I wouldn’t trust sending any of their ilk to the shops for a free newspaper with any expectation of success.
Look at the shambles around HS2. Billions already spent and well over budget and now doubt about finishing the project.
Whose going to carry the can for that?
When the pound plunges further, tariffs kick in, jobs are lost, huge queues at the Channel ports and our airports, price increases all round, shortages of basic foodstuffs and medicines many of those who voted leave will be asking is this what we voted for?
This isn”t project fear, the actuality of a no deal Brexit has most likely been underplayed because the truth would be unpalatable.
Bo Jo, a proven liar and sacked in his previous job as the worst foreign secretary in living memory and he’s leading the charge?
Are the Brexiteers not a little worried about his ‘do or die’ rhetoric, because in my book that’a a 50/50 chance?
As far as the island of Ireland is concerned Bojo and his disciples don’t give a toss.
My My – The total ignorance of the people on here who think that their country or the EU is run for the peoples benefit. The people should be paying NO taxes – the corrupt government brought in the TEMPORARY Income Tax Act 1842 and they have been robbing the people of this TEMPORARY Income Tax ever since. Why are all of our governments in massive debt when they SHOULD be printing their own debt and interest FREE money and our countries would be BOOMING with NO poverty etc like the US used to be when they used to print their own debt and interest FREE Greenback Dollars. The debt/austerity is totally FAKE and is to scare and force our countries into huge Private CORPORATIONS on behalf of the Elites who really run our countries instead of the smaller Private CORPORATIONS that they are just now – they bankrupted our countries into these Private CORPORATIONS with the Emergency Banking Act, March 9, 1933. Our countries do NOT need to be part of any huge Private CORPORATION such as the EU or any Trade Agreements as they are for the benefit of the CORPORATIONS and NOT the people. Every country should be independent and printing their own debt and interest FREE money just like Iceland and they did the right thing by arresting and jailing the politicians and bankers involved in this scam. These three corrupt MAFIA City States are what really runs our countries, EU and UN etc and you are all being suckered into their New World Order – One World Government DICTATORSHIP agenda. It is them that puts their unelected Commissioner placemen into the EU to carry out their agenda and what is happening in Greece is coming to everyone if they get way with this agenda :
https://www.theinvestigative.com/3-corporations-that-run-the-world-city-of-london-washington-dc-and-vatican-city/
Daniel Hannan tweet
The UK has promised not to erect a border. Ireland has promised not to erect a border. So who is going to build it? Donald Trump? With Mexico paying?
So how are the UK and Ireland going to do border checks without a hard border if there is no deal.
Maybe Trump will build the wall as Britain is the 51st state in all but name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dw_aj68Gqg
You had better ask the EU that as they are the ones who are insisting on a border.
Don’t talk shite.
The EU are not insisting on a border.
it will be a result of a no deal Brexit which Doris is hell bent on after the Commons voted against it
Hopefully Macron puts him straight this afternoon as I expect him to do.
Johnston is just grandstanding as he will be aware that the Americans are the guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement and as such will not allow a hard border to be put in place.
Nancy Pelosi only last week pointed this out to the UK that their proposed trade deal would not pass through the House as American senators with Irish heritage would block it if a hard border was erected
Boris is going round European leaders so he can move the blame for this disaster on to Brussels when they leave and the inevitable poo hits the fan
I do not for one minute believe they don’t understand the consequences! They just do not give a fu#k about Ireland or anywhere else but Engerlund.!
Thankfully the EU is falling apart. Italy will be next to leave. We didn’t want to see another Stalanesque nightmare we were heading for, did we? I’m sure if Michael Collins was alive today he wouldn’t want Ireland dictated to by non elected bureaucratic communists. Ireland should be self ruled, governed by Irish people. Isn’t that what Michael and the other brave soldiers fought for?
Sadly you show little understanding of the workings of the EU. It is far more democratic than Westminster has ever been.
mikeannis4669 – “When I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious that what they had in mind was not democratic. I mean, in Britain you vote for the government and therefore the government has to listen to you, and if you don’t like it you can change it. But in Europe all the key positions are appointed, not elected – the Commission, for example. All appointed, not one of them elected.
[..] And my view about the European Union has always been not that I am hostile to foreigners, but that I am in favour of democracy. And I think out of this story we have to find an answer, because I certainly don’t want to live in hostility to the European Union but I think they are building an empire there and they want us to be a part of that empire, and I don’t want that.” – Tony Benn
Explain to us Boris, s election credentials to us then or perhaps the House of geriatrics ie The Lords.?
So Democratic in fact that the only Ideological approach is Neoliberal Capitalism.
Or as it’s known more commonly in these parts Thatcherism.
Open yer eyes.
Utter tripe. All the extreme right wing parties in Europe have now ditched leaving the EU after seeing the disaster that Brexit is /will be. As for the rest of your post… deluded nonsense. ‘non elected bureaucratic communists’ Seriously, are you okay?
The more things change the more they stay the same in the EU
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (German pronunciation: [ˈʔʊɐ̯zula fɔn dɛɐ̯ ˈlaɪən] s a German politician and the President-elect of the European Commission. She served in the federal government of Germany from 2005 to 2019 as the longest-serving member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet. She is a member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
Frau Thatcher
You remainers are totally brainwashed with this Eu. I’m 56. In the last 30 years Europe has turned into a cesspit of corruption. Unelected, undemocratic communist twats with jobs for the boys mentality who don’t give a flying F.CK about European voters. Are you lot all deaf, blind and thick? 17.4 million people voted to leave the cesspit. THE MAJORITY WON DEMOCRATICALLY.
You are the ones who are undemocratic.
If you and the rest of the remainers love Europe so much, go and live there, you would be doing Britain a massive favour.
Dream on, BoJo boy. Ireland is a member of the largest trading bloc in the world, which has just got bigger following its free trade deal with Japan, a deal which took seven years to negotiate as these things do. The bloc has problems but so has the world. We align with the smaller members to keep the bloc as open, transparent and decentralised as we can.
Britain was our ally in that endeavour but, because of the misty longings of Empire Loyalists, the racists on the right wing of the Tory Party, and the fears of cynical tax evaders desperate to get out of the EU with no deal before the EU’s Tax Initiative kicks in on January 01, 2020, and puts a spotlight on their activities, the feeble-minded sheep were manipulated into voting against their best interests.
Spare us the Michael Collins references, there’s a good chap. That’s our business. Best put your energies into solving the impending catastrophe that faces your country. I’m not sure the one free trade deal you have managed to negotiate so far, with the Faroe Islands, will keep you going for too long.
What utter claptrap u spout u must be a little Englander post Brexit jerk. Go and educate yourself about the EU. son.!
Bollocks.