FORMER Irish president Mary McAleese has sounded a stern warning about the dangers of a Brexit-caused border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
McAleese, the President of Ireland during the peace process, speaks today on the Alex Salmond Show on RT. She told the former First Minister of Scotland of her fears for the future of the peace process and of her hopes that the UK will rejoin the European Union in the future.
READ MORE: Theresa May under pressure over stance on Irish border settlement
“I described Brexit as trying to pull a tooth with 10,000 roots,” said McAleese. “It’s very messy.”
McAleese pulls no punches in her warning: “One of the most obvious consequences of our peace process is that the militarised hard border between North and South that we used to have has evaporated. The only way you know when you have crossed the border is when Vodafone pings you to tell you that you have crossed an international border.
“After the Good Friday Agreement, we have enjoyed a period of calm and peace with relatively little violence and we have managed to cut the umbilical cord between public support and the paramilitaries. Now my worry is of course that some of the paramilitaries, the smaller operations have not gone away, they do not enjoy public support, but give them a cause and that cause could be a camera on a border, it could be a mobile patrol on a border, because here’s the thing, we now enjoy a completely open and free border - after Brexit whatever we get will be less than that.”
READ MORE: Holyrood set for second dramatic clash with Westminster over Trade Bill power grab
The former President re-states her commitment to Europe as a cause and its importance to the political, economic and social development of Ireland.
“Here’s what really excited me,” she says. “It excited me that when Ireland joined the European Union voluntarily - I used to joke it was the only union we joined voluntarily, we didn’t join the United Kingdom voluntarily - but we sat around the European table with our former imperial colonising masters and we sat as friends, we sat as partners, as neighbours and over a period of time we took all the vanities of history and over two or three generations we dismantled them and were able to offer our children something really humanly decent.”
READ MORE: Lord Advocate hits back at Holyrood's Presiding Officer over Brexit Bill
McAleese hopes that Brexit could be reversed at some point in the future: “I will always be a believer in the fundamental integrity of the European project and my plea to those who are in positions of leadership is to never lose sight of that great project and there may come a time, I like to think there will come a time, when Britain, after it leaves the European Union, would think again and rejoin this remarkable adventure in democratic politics.
“The dead hand of bureaucracy can sometimes take the gloss off dreams but so too can amnesia, so too can forgetting what this was always about for Europe was also about peace as well as prosperity and for Ireland it has helped to secure both for us.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel