First in Cardiff and then in Dublin and, in subtly different forms, the case was being made yesterday for differentiated Brexits for the UK's constituent parts to allow both Scotland and Northern Ireland to retain some of the benefits of EU membership.
But British Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking in Cardiff after the Joint Ministerial Committee of the UK's devolved assemblies, was offering no hostages to fortune to the Scots, while later assuring Taoiseach Enda Kenny she would go the extra mile to ensure, as she put it, there would be "no return to the borders of the past" in Ireland.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was not mollified, warning she would decide by the end of March whether she felt Scotland was being listened to. If not, she will push for a second independence referendum. Leaders from Wales and Northern Ireland also fruitlessly pressed May for a greater role in the Brexit negotiations.
The press conference at the end of her Dublin meeting, by contrast, saw both Kenny and May in “pot-half-full” mode, optimistic that the difficulties can be overcome. But aspirational.
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Both said they were determined to work together to uphold the Belfast Agreement and the need for what Kenny called a “friction-free” trading relationship across what would not be a “hard border”. Already the EU partners understood the nature and importance of the challenge, May averred.
The reality that the final decisions about the shape of the relationship between Ireland and the UK will be the outcome of EU/UK talks to which Ireland will contribute, but not have a seat at, sets clear limits to the dialogue between the two leaders.
But, as former EU commission Secretary General Catherine Day argued recently, EU negotiators will welcome an input to deliberations arising from “problem solving” bilateral discussions between the two states as long as their outcome respects the limits of what is permissible in EU treaties. So there remains plenty of scope for a bilateral talks process alongside the main discussions. Yesterday’s meeting appears to have been a useful opener.
On the Common Travel Area, it looks likely we will be able reach agreement with the UK so that Irish citizens can continue to move freely between the two states and live and work in the UK. Irish officials point out that the arrangements predate accession to the EU and, in providing such favourable access to the Irish, the UK would not a priori be breaking EU law.
That goodwill on the part of fellow member states in recognition of our linked but difficult histories – cultivated frenetically by our diplomats all over Europe – will probably see such arrangements approved by our 27 partners, although it would not be unreasonable for, say, a Polish prime minister to complain that the UK’s decision to leave the union has been justified as a means of controlling migrants. Clearly Polish migrants not Irish ones.
May’s determination to leave the EU’s customs union makes the commitment to a “frictionless” border more difficult to fulfil. The obligation by Ireland to monitor trade and levy tariffs on behalf of the EU across its only land border with the UK makes the challenge qualitatively different to that of the common travel area.
May’s commitment to strengthening the UK’s relationship with Ireland is welcome.