Brian He is a retired teacher who now acts as a guide in Belfast explaining the history of the city. His speech is very serious, but at one of the stops he reveals a secret. “In my youth I spent a night in jail for smuggling condoms,” he says to the stunned gaze of the group. “Contraception in the Republic of Ireland was banned until 1980. Like in North Ireland yes they could be bought We passed them across the border to get some money. Everybody was messing around. The truth is that it is a very exceptional border ”, she assures.
After the end of the Irish War of Independence 1922, six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster to the north of the island remained under British sovereignty. But it is one thing to draw a red line on a map and quite another to put a hermetic seal on a country.
The Irish border – the only land border that now exists between the UK and EUalong with that of Gibraltar – not only separates beliefs between Catholics and Protestants, political motivations among those who feel themselves Irish and British; It also divides, like a child’s clumsy stroke, rivers and towns, cutting fields and even, in some cases, “splitting” the homes themselves, where the dining room is in the north and the bedrooms in the south. Around 35,000 people cross it every day for various reasons such as going to work, going to school, visiting the doctor.
Throughout its 500 kilometres, many of them on rural roads, there are more than 200 crossings. But they are completely invisible. The only way to know if you are on one side or the other is because the sections are marked in kilometers or miles.
Eamon is one of the neighbors whose life takes place between these two realities. His Family Business”Fitzpatrick Fuels & Hardware“It is a benchmark in the county fermanagha quiet corner of Northern Ireland green landscapes. You can buy just about anything from gasoline to cakes to tools. With the peculiarity that customers fill the deposits at the pumps located in the Republic of Ireland to then take a few steps to the box, located in the British province. “You can order a coffee to drink it in another country still hot”, he jokes, pointing to the border represented by a barely perceptible line on the ground.
At the cash desk you can pay in both pounds and euros. The approach is reminiscent of noah’s ark: two of everything. Two currencies, two postal addresses (one in the British county of Fermanagh, one in the Irish county of Monaghan), two types of tax systems.
when the emon’s father bought the land in 1986 it was already divided. “People asked us if we were unconscious or brave. I guess there was a bit of both. But opportunities like that didn’t come along very often, either. Here it is not easy to find land”, he points out.
Back then, the “Troubles” were in full swing. More than 3,500 people lost their lives in the bloody three-decade conflict in Northern Ireland between Catholics – who want the island’s reunification – and Protestants – who want to remain part of the United Kingdom.
The border was then taken by the British Army. There were strict controls to pass from one side to the other. Lackey Bridge, very close to Eamon’s business, was blown up several times with bombs. “They were very difficult days. We supply fuel to several farms in the area. There’s one just two miles away. But we had to do 10 miles to get there. Nobody wants to go back to those times now. My business would certainly be unviable ”, she assures.
He 1998 Good Friday peace agreement which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary, determined that there could not be a “hard border” on the island again. But with Brexit a real dilemma posed. The historic peace agreement had to be respected, but at the same time the EU’s single market must be protected.
Finally, it was decided to “move” the border to the Irish Sea, leaving the British province with a different status from the rest of the United Kingdom, more aligned with European regulations than the British one. But the so-called Irish Protocol required customs controls to be carried out on thes goods traded with Great Britain, which generated political tensions. The new framework now negotiated between London and Brussels, the Windsor Agreement, considerably reduces the checks, but it is still not accepted by the DUP unionists, who refuse to form a coalition government with a blockade that has lasted for more than a year .
Andrew, 42 years old, despair at the behavior of politicians. He voted against Brexit, but the exceptional situation in which Northern Ireland has now ended (within the community customs union and at the same time within the British customs union) benefits him a lot for his company Mango, a bike customization company, which serves the whole world. The offices are in Parkgate, a small town in County Antrim. “An important part of our online business is distribution. We work with suppliers from Canada or New Zealand because we can trade with both the EU and the United Kingdom at no extra cost. They do not understand how we can continue without a government because of this when in reality it could be seen as a plus ”, he assures.
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