Remain must mean remain: why we need an all-Ireland response to Brexit
Martin McGuinness: ‘Economic uncertainty is damaging trade and investment and causing currency fluctuations that impact particularly on cross-Border business and exports’
Martin McGuinness: ‘The Taoiseach needs to lead in defending our national interest in the working out of the Brexit vote. The clock is ticking.’ Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
The island of Ireland is facing the biggest constitutional crisis since partition as a result of the Brexit referendum. The negotiations in the lead-up to Easter 1998 concluded with agreement on three interdependent strands relating to: issues within the North, between the North and the Republic, and between Ireland and Britain. Like a three-legged stool, take away one leg and it collapses.
The Good Friday (or Belfast) agreement, as it became known, was endorsed by 94 per cent of the voters in the Republic and 71 per cent in the North. Bunreacht na hÉireann was amended, institutions North and S outh were established and 18 years of political progress proceeded on the basis of that democratic vote.