A Hard or a Soft Border? An Update on the “Two Irelands” After Brexit

Abstract

Relying on the speeches and remarks of Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the paper is an analysis of how these three British Prime Ministers have each dealt with the ‘eternal Irish question’, looking first at the relation between the Good Friday Agreement and Brexit and then at the reasons why the so-called Irish backstop was regarded as so controversial that it delayed Brexit. The corpora we have relied on are evidence of the fear that, had the backstop been triggered, it would have been impossible to remove. This was so despite the many reassurances of Theresa May, who consistently reiterated that the backstop was temporary and that it was neither a trap nor a threat, but only a last resort to deliver Brexit with a deal, to avoid “a one-way ticket with no clear destination”. Leaving without a deal, instead, was not such a huge dilemma for most Leavers, who kept repeating that “no deal is better than the rotten deal we’ve got now”.

When Boris Johnson was forced to stand down in June 2022, Rishi Sunak took to heart the Irish border issue, finally delivering the Windsor Framework in February 2023, thus bringing peace in general, but mostly peace of mind, preserving not only economics but also identity and dignity, placing the Northern Irish people on equal footing with the rest of the UK.