View from Newry: Border town would lose much with Brexit

For Newry, the possibility of a Brexit may have seemed like a nebulous idea or a dangerous theory that was unlikely to have any practical impact on this Border town between North and South.

The likelihood that Britain may actually leave the European Union, with associated concerns of the reintroduction of a hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland, seemed, until recent weeks, remote.

Businesses in the town, which had long been neglected as a result of the economic hardship wrought by the Troubles, spoke out early and loudly against a Brexit, but few believed something many maintain would cause chaos could suddenly seem so real.

Sitting in his jeweller’s shop on Hill Street on Monday, Jack Murphy, who is active in the local chamber of commerce, says the concern is now genuine.

Businesses like his, and the town as a whole, pulled themselves up from the years of the Troubles to enjoy something of a peacetime dividend before the economic crisis hit.

The fortunes of Newry can also fluctuate with the relative strengths of the euro and sterling. Cross-Border trade can suddenly change direction as the strength of either currency rises or falls.

“We’ve come through the Troubles, then we had a few good years and then we had the economic crisis,” says Murphy. “We don’t need another one.”

He believes a vote to leave would be a “nightmare” and, not unlike other pro-EU campaigners across Britain, says Outers are hankering after an idyll of times past.

“I heard someone on the radio the other day saying it would be great to leave because it would go back to the way it was. Harland and Wolff and all the shirt factories – that is never going to happen.

“But that’s the sort of bumpf the Leave campaigners are coming out with.”

Murphy and others in Newry should ensure the town posts a sizeable majority for Remain. The overwhelming feeling can be gauged by the shock headline in last week's Newry Reporter, based on a statement by local SDLP councillor Gary Stokes, that one in four could possibly vote for Brexit.

Unionists

A 75 per cent vote in favour of a proposition is an overwhelming landslide by any measure, but here it seemed astonishingly low. Others in Newry dispute that Remain will prevail by such a margin. Nor does the assumption that unionists are more favourably disposed to leave, and nationalists remain, strictly apply.

In his butcher shop on Margaret Street, Brian McElroy says families are divided and the traditional way of voting along community lines matters less for Brexit. McElroy, himself an SDLP voter, is a Brexiteer and believes Leave could command 40 per cent support in Newry.

“The initial thing of a European market was a good principle but we are gone more towards a political field rather than an actual market. Basically, it’s time to get out.”

Nor does he buy the warnings from those such as Taoiseach Enda Kenny and British prime minister David Cameron that a hard border and customs checks would wreak havoc with trade between North and South.

“We’ve been in business for 95 years and we have seen borders come and go and we have seen different things happen. I can’t see anything major unless the governments want to enforce it.”

In another butcher’s shop, John Kerr says he was leaning towards leave but is now drifting into the Remain camp.

“The more you’re hearing and the closer you’re coming to it, the more inclined you’d be to remain. I’m undecided.”

Kerr’s butcher colleague Stephen Rooney says that although he believes the result across Britain will be a marginal Remain vote, the matter will not be put to rest.

“It won’t go away. There’ll still be them that always wants to stay out. In the long term, you can control your own borders and your own imports.”

Nor do the border threats worry him.

“Ah, scaremongering. I can’t see it, can’t see it. An auld spot check here or there. I think with the Troubles dying down, it’s not going to be a problem.”

Trade

While the debate for many in Northern Ireland centres on the issue of the Border and trade, the defining issue for Leave campaigners across the UK is also heard on the streets of Newry.

Immigration, while not on a scale that has areas of England turning to Brexit, is growing as a concern.

Gervase Treanor (56) was raised around Newry and lives now in Bessbrook. He does not generally vote but says if he does cast a ballot on Thursday, it will be for Leave. “My first job was in Hamburg in 1979 when I was 19..... I worked bloody hard. I couldn’t go near the social. You wouldn’t be there if you went near the social. If you hadn’t the money for rent, you were out. But now they’re coming and they are on top of the range benefits and straight away they are on to a winner.

‘Not fair’

“I’m rippin’ with the whole lot. It’s not right, it’s not fair. What if we can’t look after our own? I’m sounding like Adolf Hitler now and I’m not like that, but you can see yourself the way it is going.”

Lithuanian Daiva Lyzoviene, who runs the Mix Market European food store, says all her customers want to stay in the EU.

“Nobody knows, nobody knows what could happen after. I think there will be more problems for us. We will not be citizens of the European Union, it will be visas or something else.”

Strolling through the town on a shopping trip, Maurice McGee (80) and his wife Peggy Sue (74) are both for Remain. “You’d have another 10 years to sort things out, you’d have the auld Border going again.”

While the McGees represent the majority view in Newry, the Border town so many characterise as having so much to lose from a Brexit holds a view that is far from uniform.

A three in four vote in favour of Remain may seem incredible to some but it could prove close to reality when votes are counted later this week