The sealing of the UK-EU trade deal was a difficult day for the Republic of Ireland

Christmas Eve was a red letter day.

It will take some time for the 2,000 pages of the EU/UK agreement to percolate through the Irish political system. The media will do their best to play it down.

I saw the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, reporting on the agreement on Christmas Eve with a sneer on her facing suggesting the agreement might not turn out to be what the Brexiters want. We can expect the same here in the Republic.

I was reading Old Moore’s Almanac for 2021. Old Moore is predicting riots in Britain in the coming year because of the shortages that will be caused by trucks piling up at Dover and the like but we will see.

The EU won’t give up trying to make Brexit as difficult as possible (with tough side effects for Ireland, about which the EU couldn’t care less) but Boris Johnson can retire in triumph now if he wishes, assuming all the necessary parliaments, including his own, approve the deal.

Other EU member states will squirrel away the 2,000 pages against the day they decide to follow the UK out of the EU.

Our lot will begin to feel a certain post Brexit discomfort in the coming months. Christmas Eve was a very difficult day for them.

Michael Clarke, Dublin

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