Brexit And The Resurgence Of Hibernophobia In Britain

As the British Prime Minister Theresa May stumbles from crisis to crisis in the ongoing Brexit debacle, seemingly with no plan beyond running down the clock on parliamentary debates and negotiations until Westminster is forced into a cliff-edge acceptance of last November’s Draft Withdrawal Agreement between Britain and the European Union, the explicit animosity of senior politicians in London towards their counterparts in Dublin has been remarkable. This includes Owen Paterson, an ex-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whose false and misleading claims about the United Kingdom’s border in Ireland makes one thankful that the Troubles had come to an end before his tenure in office or God knows what calamities would have befallen the Six Counties. Certainly, maintaining two decades of relative peace in the UK’s overseas’ territory seems to be the furthest thing from his mind as he tours the right-wing press in London, spouting spurious nonsense for partisan ears. Likewise Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Tory party, has happily powered the Brexiteer propaganda machine with no end of fake news and opinions to feed the lunatic trolls who lurk in alarming numbers on British social media. Whatever happens in the months ahead, there is no doubt that twenty years of normalised post-conflict relations between Dublin and London has taken several steps back.