Border issue a Rubix cube where someone moved all the colours

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

We were in Donegal at the weekend to visit my brother and his family. The trip takes you through Co Tyrone. Nowadays, there is no physical barrier. A few kilometres north of Emyvale, the markings on the road change, and suddenly there is no Irish on the road signs and all speed limits are in miles.

There may be no border, but sometimes when you hear people talk about the ‘invisible border’, you would think that Ireland has already been united.

For sure, when the border infrastructure started coming down almost a quarter of a century ago, it made a huge difference. Until the mid-1990s, going to the Six Counties was never an easy jaunt.

The border itself was intimidating. There were these huge corrugated security stations, complete with cameras and rifle-bearing soldiers. The checkpoint process was tense for those not used to it.

For that reason lots of Southern people were reluctant to make the journey north during the years of the Troubles.

Sure for Northerners, that overbearing security presence had become part of the fabric of their society and they had normalised it. For southerners who went up once or twice a year, it was a very different kind of experience.

And so gradually, that easy journey south for North had its reverse experience, the easy journey north for southerners.

The trip to Newry to buy cheap booze. The weekend away in Belfast to see the Titanic Quarter and experience the city’s food and culture (even the Belfast of the Troubles became a tourist destination – the Black Taxi tour of the loyalist and republican areas is now de rigeur for visitors).

But all that happened after the Border came into existence after Independence almost a century ago created a difference that has not been fully undone.

For one, the Troubles forced communities into default positions expressed by their religious backgrounds – Catholic and Protestants.

That manifested in a sectarian edge never experienced in the south. Sure, the South was unashamedly Catholic but is quick evolution into a secular society over the past generation has not been matched in the North.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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