An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking yesterday on the issue of a no-deal Brexit with two rather poorly-informed if somewhat sympathetic journalists from Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, putting the blame for the possible return of a hard border in Ireland firmly where it belongs: on the United Kingdom.
We would have been very happy to have a backstop that only applied to Northern Ireland. That didn’t apply to Britain. But the UK wanted a UK element to it.
I think we’ve given a lot already. Lets not forget that this is a decision that Britain has made. It’s a decision with the potential for great harm for other countries.
So, you know, we’re the ones already giving. And the UK wanted a review clause in the backstop and we agreed to that. The UK wanted a UK-wide element.
So why is it that the country that is being victimised is the one that is always asked to give?
If things go very wrong it’ll look like things looked like twenty years ago [on the Six Counties’ border].
It would involve customs posts. It would involve people in uniform. And it may involve the need, for example, for cameras, physical infrastructure, possibly a [UK] police presence or [UK] army presence to back it up.
The problem with that in the context of Irish politics and history is those things become targets…
And we’ve already had a certain degree of violence in the last few weeks.
I just don’t want to see that come back.
But, you know, we shouldn’t forget the basic principles here.
This is a problem caused by Britain.
We came up with a solution, which is the deal that is on the table. Now their parliament has rejected it.
Shouldn’t they be offering us something?
Why are we the ones constantly being asked to help them solve the problem they created? What are they offering us?
Nothing at the moment…
Exactly.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
ASF, May I draw your attention to the reporting of the same interview here on Guido Fawkes blog:-
https://order-order.com/2019/01/25/now-varadkar-threatens-put-troops-irish-border/
And I highly recommend you read the comments underneath.
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Good Lord, those comments are of Express-level quality. Never has so little been known by so many!
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More this time the Britosh solution is that Ireland ‘rejoins’ the UK:-https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/26/john-humphrys-suggests-ireland-could-quit-eu-and-join-uk
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Just posted that, thanks for the link!
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Maith an fear
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‘British’ not Britosh,.
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During the Leveson Inquiry. Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes during his testimony, Staines took the opportunity to underline his Irish nationality – his mother is from Finglas and he holds an Irish passport – by telling the judge he didn’t have to recognise the court’s authority. “What I think you’re missing,” he said, “is that I’m a citizen of a free republic and, since 1922, I don’t have to pay attention to what a British judge orders me to do.” Funny that he is Irish only when it suits him, and he is wrong on that last point if you are in the jurisdiction of a particular country you are bound by the laws of that country,
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When you are in the jurisdiction of a particular country you are bound by the laws of that country, there are a lot of republicans past and present who would debate that point.
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Peruvian is right, the Irish army are risible. It would be the greatest incentive to dissident recruitment ever.
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What you mean is that the defence policy of the Irish Goverment is risible.
The PDF rarely gets what is requests. The DF cannot even write its own cheques – all expediture is decided by the Department of Defence which is staffed by individuals who have no expertise in defence.
Hence, the DF gets no fast jets, no main battle tanks, no warships and instead we have pseudo-military hardware (think repurposed civilian helicopters rather than Blackhawks) and a light infantry / gendarmerie for aid to civil power roles.
It is not a symptom of DF morale, training or effectiveness but rather of Irish Government complacency and its utter lack of pride in national insitutions.
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Jesus that’s all we would need. Black hawks flying over Castleblaney and cruise missiles based in Dundalk harbour. Our closest neighbours have all that stuff and more and it’s bankrupting them, thank god. Blackhawks are attack helicopters, ireland does not need to attack anyone and never has.
When Drew gets a bit of good Ulster efficiency beaten into his merry men he won’t need a gendarmerie. Let the army guard the British border if they must, sure there is bugger all exported from the north anyway it all comes in through Larne and Belfast. Love to hear of Arlene being caught by the ruc smuggling a couple of Pats Pans across at Roslea. John Bull would still try and tramp his big flat feet over everyone, that day is gone.
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Pat having a good insurance policy is prudent. That is why you have a contingency defence.
How would you transport a company of troops (i.e. 200-300) to protect the population of a border town against a loyalist paramilitary incursion (e.g. Clontibret) without several troop-carrying helicopters? Are you proposing they travel by road – in which case they will be too late to prevent damage, injury or worse.
A brief study of the last one hundred years of Irish history should tell you can happen to defenceless populations when militias and paramilitaries are on the loose.
It would be irresponsible government not to plan for the worst and invest in defence.
By the way, the Blackhawk is not an attack helicopter, rather medium lift troop carrying helicopter. You may be thinking of the Apache which is an attack helicopter.
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Krim, I wouldn’t be that well versed in the uses of particular helicopters, had a free ride in one in ‘79 and didn’t enjoy it. If your afraid of Peter the Punt launching another invasion don’t hold your breath. All the military hardware in the world would not have stopped the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
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Yes It would. Checkpoints, searches, patrols and surveillance stopped many, many incidents in the six counties and the rest of Ireland. You need hardware for all of that. Helicopters for picking people up and putting them down, for searching, for pursuit etc etc etc.
Hardware is also a visible deterrent.
Sooner have it and not need it than really need it and not have it.
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Nite nite,you’ve got school in the morning.
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I’d say that the days when much of international opinion would mostly blame Irish people not the British government is over.
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The problem is that the UK does not – at the moment – regard control of the border and the passage of goods as a problem, but the passage of people. As it is the EU which is concerned about the import of goods that do not meet the EU’s standards, it is absurd to claim that the EU – and so Ireland – will not need to control the border in some way or another. That was the purpose of the proposed customs union – it would require the UK to continue to meet EU standards of food and commercial production..
Given the more nightmarish forecasts of the consequences of a no-deal Brexit, perhaps the Irish government and the EU ought to be considering ending the CTA before they face the hordes of famine-stricken disease ridden refugees which will be swarming over the border.
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