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From the New York Times, a piece on the impact of Brexit.

Two weeks ago I was on the outskirts of Derry, a town in Northern Ireland, just a few yards away from the border where Britain ends and the Republic of Ireland begins. Behind a garden wall, a wiry, older man was eager to vent.

“This is Ireland! The English have no business here,” he exclaimed. He pointed down the road toward a small stone bridge. The checkpoint there vanished two decades ago, he said. Should the British try to erect a new guard house, he went on, “we will burn it down.”

Come on, I cajoled him, incredulously. What will really happen if, after Britain leaves the European Union, customs officers or the police might be stationed at what will then be a new border?

“We will stone them,” the man replied, more calmly. He shrugged, warming to his idea. “Yeah. We’ll stone them.”

There is no end to the problems surrounding Brexit, but especially for the rest of us Europeans, the dilemma at the Irish-British land border is the most perplexing, and perhaps the most concerning, at least in a symbolic sense.

Continue reading @the New York Times,

Brexit, Ireland And The Failure Of The European Idea

From the New York Times, a piece on the impact of Brexit.

Two weeks ago I was on the outskirts of Derry, a town in Northern Ireland, just a few yards away from the border where Britain ends and the Republic of Ireland begins. Behind a garden wall, a wiry, older man was eager to vent.

“This is Ireland! The English have no business here,” he exclaimed. He pointed down the road toward a small stone bridge. The checkpoint there vanished two decades ago, he said. Should the British try to erect a new guard house, he went on, “we will burn it down.”

Come on, I cajoled him, incredulously. What will really happen if, after Britain leaves the European Union, customs officers or the police might be stationed at what will then be a new border?

“We will stone them,” the man replied, more calmly. He shrugged, warming to his idea. “Yeah. We’ll stone them.”

There is no end to the problems surrounding Brexit, but especially for the rest of us Europeans, the dilemma at the Irish-British land border is the most perplexing, and perhaps the most concerning, at least in a symbolic sense.

Continue reading @the New York Times,
Brexit New York Times

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