He believes it could destabilise the peace process…
Former Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern has warned that if Brexit is not handled properly, it could destabilise the peace process.
Ahern said that the creation of a physical border in any shape between the north and south of Ireland could take away the “calming effects” of the current open border.
In an interview with The Observer in London, Ahern said that Theresa May seemed to be “switching her language” when it came to statements about the border.
“She’s saying not that there’ll be no border, but that the border won’t be as difficult as to create problems. I worry far more about what’s going to happen with that,” Mr Ahern said.
I worry far more about what’s going to happen with that. It will take away the calming effects [of an open border]. Any attempt to try to start putting down border posts, or to man [it] in a physical sense as used to be the case, would be very hard to maintain, and would create a lot of bad feeling.”
Ahern was Taoiseach of Ireland when the Good Friday Agreement, a multilateral agreement which paved the way for the Northern Ireland we know today, was signed in 1998.
“People have said that this could have the same impact on the nationalist community as the seismic shock of the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement on unionists, and I agree with that,” Ahern said.
“For the nationalist community in Northern Ireland, the Good Friday agreement was about removing barriers, integrating across the island, working democratically in the absence of violence and intimidation – and if you take that away, as the Brexit vote does, that has a destabilising effect.”
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