As news broke about an alleged agreement between the British and Irish governments on a “regulatory alignment” post Brexit, my relatives across the pond took to WhatsApp. “The devil is in the detail”, “It isn’t even signed off” and “The DUP will never agree to that”. Indeed, East Antrim Democratic Unionist Party MP, Sammy Wilson, wasted no time dismissing reports, if true, as “unacceptable”. The people of Northern Ireland will take little comfort from words alone.
When I was 10, I went on a school trip, from my home in Dublin, to the north. At the checkpoint, combat-clad soldiers pointed guns at us from concrete towers, defaced by graffiti reading, “Brits out, Peace in”. After hours of waiting, two British soldiers got on the bus wielding rifles. My friend, Bridie, was so traumatised she wet herself.
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