Just Finished Reading: The Border – The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics by Diarmaid Ferriter (FP: 2019) [146pp] 

The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is in the news again. When both the UK and the RoI were both in the European Union it was, in effect, invisible. Brexit, of course, changed all that. Naturally with the history of both sides and especially the more recent history of ‘The Troubles’ that particular borders issues are going to be complicated. But these complications go back to the start of its existence with the end of the Irish Civil War and, indeed, in some ways back to the boundaries of the counties created in the 17th and 18th centuries. As I said, complicated. 

Because Ireland was under British rule for centuries prior to the Irish Civil War (28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) and the subsequent partition the county boundaries were practically meaningless. Borders ran down the center of roads, through parts of villages and between milking sheds and pastures. The Boundary Commision created to settle these issues failed to do so as neither the South nor the North was willing to trade territory for rationality. But being practical people at heart, the Irish either ignored the border or found ways to work (and walk) around it. With so many crossing points and so little surveillance available, smuggling was both rife and highly profitable. Again, this was (mostly) tolerated and largely ignored. There was just no practical way to stop it. Then things turned NASTY with The Troubles and the attempt to stop cross border incidents. Slowly crossing points were reduced, hardened and surveillance increased. The border was still permeable – there wasn’t any way to make it secure without building an Iron Curtain equivalent which no one wanted and would’ve been prohibitively expensive – but at least some control was possible. Then came the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and the border posts were dismantled, bridges between communities literally re-built and things started moving again. Economic and cross border, cross culture ties increased and people on both sides started to put the bad old days behind them. Then, as we all know, came Brexit. 

Not surprisingly the Northern Irish border was one of THE main sticking points in any negotiations with the EU. But as my friends and I discussed it there was obviously a flaw in the UK’s ‘plan’. Now obviously you can’t have a wide-open border between the UK (in the guise of Northern Ireland) and the EU (in the guise of the Republic of Ireland) once the UK left. At the same time, you couldn’t have a HARD border between the two entities because of the Belfast Agreement and subsequent cross-border processes and organisations. To square that particular circle the UK proposed a ‘frictionless’ border with customs checks taking place automatically with new (as yet to be developed) technology. This magically process was accepted by both sides at the last minute in order to avoid a no-deal Brexit and all of the consequences that would follow from that. Of course, this magical tech has yet to appear (years later) and undoubtedly will never appear because, spoiler alert, it’s MAGIC. 

So, if the Irish border issue has ever caused you to scratch your head and wonder what all the fuss is about, this is definitely the book for you. I learnt a LOT from this short and very well written (and sometimes honestly hilarious) history of a sometimes very contentious line on a map. Definitely more coming on Irish history from this author. 

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