Marriage’s lesson for the EU debate

That’s not fair!

It should be about the unemotional side of marriage: fairness, barter (I’ll wash the dishes, you put the kids to bed), money, contract, pragmatism.

When EU membership does become emotional is when you think about Northern Ireland and peace – it was so much easier for Northern Ireland and Ireland to collectively be members of the EU (a parent body if you like) than to be Brexit-forced to belong solely to the UK and have to abandon any feelings of belonging to Ireland (and thus the EU).

This is the greatest sadness of Brexit: it unravels the Good Friday Agreement, an international agreement between the British and Irish governments which addressed Issues relating to sovereignty, civil and cultural rights, decommissioning of weapons, demilitarisation, justice and policing.

Why throw all that away? To return to violence? Is this what Johnson wants when he says get rid of the backstop?

Alison Hackett, Dun Laoghaire