What is the problem with a hard border?
The men who founded this State thought that recognising the North’s essential difference was a price worth paying
Border control at London’s Heathrow Airport. The Border with the North is real, and hard, because it runs through the minds of the inhabitants of this island. File photograph: Steve Parsons/PA Wire
Forgive me if I seem a little bit paranoid, but when everyone from Fine Gael and Sinn Féin to many sections of the media are relentlessly pushing the idea of “no hard border on the island of Ireland”, I begin to smell groupthink. Our diplomats and officials pride themselves on having sold the idea to our fellow Europeans, even if signs of buyer’s remorse are beginning to emerge. But I think I have a right to be suspicious of the strangely unified approach. The sad fact is, this is a country where groupthink and not rocking the boat is an existential principle, and we have suffered for it. So let’s perhaps look again at the facts with regard to the Border issue, and try to think the unthinkable, because the unthinkable may soon correspond to the political reality. The European Commission has left us in no doubt that the consequences of a no-deal Brexit is a hard border.
I understand perfectly well the motivation of the politicians of all stripes who are pushing the soft border. But the reality is, that almost a century ago, the majority of us accepted partition, deciding that retaining Northern Ireland in reality rather than on paper was too high a price to pay in exchange for some kind of freedom, flawed and minimal as it was. Given the chance in 1998, 94 per cent of us actually voted to remove the territorial claim, and replace it with “an aspiration”. The crucial point is that borders are not just a line in the ground, it’s the people and their culture.