@Mick Tobin: we didn’t need Bertie to tell us that.

@DERRY1973: Strictly speaking not, but I’ve a feeling there’s a good number of people who still aren’t aware of this insidious British strategy of pushing us out, nor of the effect that this drags us back into the British sphere of influence once again.

Ahern is actually the first Irish politician I’m aware of to explictly warn of checks at Irish ports to protect the integrity of the EU single market. This is a consequence of the fact that legally, Northern Ireland is the UK’s Brexit achilles heel. They are doing whatever they can to make it our achilles heel instead. I care little actually who it is that stresses this point. It cannot be emphasised enough.

@v39e84kK: How did he manage to slide out from under the rock

@Sean: I think it’s fair to say that all politicians north and south of the border involved in the whole peace process went above and beyond the call of duty. It’s ok to give somebody credit for something but to still regard them as an ahole for another aspect of their job.

@Fi Wyse: i don’t think they did , they are in their jobs due to the people who voted them in, the minimum they should do is above and beyond in every task they do in their privileged position

@Sean: OK whatever you think yourself, but history would dictate otherwise!

@Fi Wyse: it would not, you make it out that he did it on his own, Who is John Hume?

@Sean:Albert Reynolds and John Major and John Hume did all the real behind the scenes hard work bringing peace to the north, Blair and Ahearn just happen to get elected as it was coming to fruition and along with Willy Clinton stole the glory of a job well done…Ahern was and always will be a gob….

@Sean:
Yea, but what if the Milkman was delivering your Milk, and getting his leg over too? That sums up Bertie.

@Liam Byrne: lol

@Michael Mcshane: well said. Some people on here have short memories,

@Ronan Lawler: All of which would play into the hands of a second referendum. Brexit would look unworkable and they could no longer say that it doesn’t put the Irish peace process at risk, because it clearly would be. Labour could easily argue for the case of a second referendum in the chaos. And it would be won by remain. Ffs, put the ball BACK in the UK’s court!!!

@Oscar Leary: it would be super interesting if they would ever go back to another vote considering how much financial markets changed and how much Ireland benefited from new roles that we created here as a result.

@Ronan Lawler: Obviously it wouldn’t, but then I’m not the one suggesting land border infrastructure would be put into place – that’s Oscar. And to go along with that there’s also the suggestion of offering an olive branch being let back into the EU by ‘forcing’ a new referendum. That’s completely unrealistic given the fantasy politics that appeals to a rather unfortunate amount of Brits (including one of my best mates over there to my utter astonishment – I’m afraid these fantasy sentiments which completely ignore Ireland run quite deep).

No, I think the Brits should be approached pragmatically. If they can be persuaded to rejoin the customs union, that’d be most of the problems sussed. A future UK government, certainly Labour, is more than likely to do that. All they need to do is to get over their so-called ‘global Britain’ trade agreements fantasy, because that’s the only reason they opted to leave the customs union in the first place. To expect them to rejoin the EU is similarly fantasy. They might do so eventually, but if they do that will take decades, which is a timeframe peace in Northern Ireland does not have. So we need to be realistic and pragmatic. The adult in the room I suppose…

@Mick Tobin: If checks are ever introduced on ROI ports because of UK choice to leave the EU, well I hope all hell kicks off in response in ROI…… The cheek of the Tories, because Boris lied about an oven ready deal to avoid a second referendum, we’re supposed to take a hit

@Mick Tobin: I agree that under a normal situation, I had expected it was going to take about 20 years, maybe minimum, for “this” to work it’s way put of the British psyche. However, the brits are trying to force this here and we can’t facilitate their path or even the customs argument approach is undermined. The Tories will point to a ready made solution checks on ROI ports, sure theyre doing it already. And we wouldn’t be forcing anything. Just putting an offer out and letting them decide. But being prepared to stick out WTO if goes to that for a period. That is better than what could become permanent checks on ROI ports, because of an English and Welsh decision to leave the EU. So put the ball back in the UK’s court.

@Oscar Leary: Checks in Irish, or probably French ports initially, is still the lesser of the two evils, so this is what I would expect in the Brits go through with their mad plans.

There does not seem to be much else to do since the Brits are absolutely intent on diverging from EU standards just to demostrate their ‘independence and sovereignty’.

I’ll be looking at these byelections first which are rather likely to unseat Boris Johnson after all, but then they’ll likely have Liz Truss as PM, who voted remain and so will likely want to show herself to be a true Brexiteer after all, in other words, I’m expecting things to get worse before they get better. After that episode, the Tories are hopefully toast given the opposition finally get their act together. And maybe after that we’ll finally see some improvements…

@Mick Tobin: Just FYI Labour’s current policy is to rejoin the single market, but to stay out of the customs union. So there’s quite a few ifs/buts and maybes to what you’re ultimately proposing. I don’t think ROI should make a decision that means ROI takes a hit, and at the same time that decision would help facilitate the path of brexiteers. I would rather a shorter, sharper hit, then back to negotiating with sincerity, than what we’ve experienced for the last 6 years and that could potentially go on for more years, if we continue with the softly softly approach with a party that is clearly out to take advantage of that strategy.