America's CIA: the real border between UK and Ireland is in the Irish Sea

The DUP’s Sammy Wilson has described it as “disturbing” for unionists – and said he will be tabling a question in Westminster to find out whether the UK is challenging CIA and EU claims about the border.

The TUV say it highlights a “perilous” situation – and that it is “quite extraordinary that Northern Ireland is the only place in the world where the CIA think it necessary to qualify where the land boundary is in this fashion”.

Since Brexit, the UK and EU have put in place various schemes to avoid physical checks on goods or people at the Irish land border. This is because the UK committed in the EU withdrawal agreement to keeping the international frontier open .

The pledge to avoid any form of infrastructure on the Irish border has led to concerns from some unionists about the increasing separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom – particularly around trading goods and potential checks on people. Northern Ireland also has additional European human rights provisions to Great Britain under the protocol.

However, the Irish border still exists in areas such as currency, policing and justice, welfare, taxation and NATO membership.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson says the CIA’s description is likely emanating from Brussels. “This should be disturbing to unionists, it should be disturbing to the UK government that the EU are now declaring that as the border. I would like to see the UK government challenging the EU, because that’s obviously an EU interpretation of where the EU border lies”.

He said when he returns to parliament he will put down a question asking whether the UK government will be challenging it. “I suspect one of the reasons they haven’t is because they know they have, in effect, allowed a border to be created in the Irish Sea”, Mr Wilson said.

The East Antrim MP said it is “further confirmation that as far as the EU is concerned… they have divided the United Kingdom”.

“There is evidence of this, because checks on trade don’t occur at the EU border, they occur within the United Kingdom", he said.

Mr Wilson added that the UK government have now taken on the responsibility of implementing that border through the legislation they put down recently, which was part of the deal with the DUP, but said the EU “of course has got the ability if it deems it necessary, to override the UK government on what checks on that border look like – and what’s allowed in terms of checks or no checks”.

In a list of global frontiers on the agency’s website – the border between the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland is singled out for a special explanation.

In an entry about the EU’s land borders, it states that the trading bloc’s border with the United Kingdom is 499 km, but notes “the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement (2020) commits the United Kingdom (UK) to maintain an open border in Ireland, so the border between Northern Ireland (UK) and the Republic of Ireland is only de jure and is not a hard border; the de facto border is the Irish Sea between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain”.

The phrase ‘de jure’ describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether they exist in reality – while de facto means something exists in fact, whether intended, legal, or accepted.

TUV Carrick Castle Councillor David Clarke said: “The CIA Land boundaries post should cause all Unionists to sit up and take note of the perilous situation we are in. It recognises that the border ‘is the Irish Sea between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain’.

“It is quite extraordinary that Northern Ireland is the only place in the world where the CIA think it necessary to qualify where the land boundary is in this fashion.

“I say extraordinary but of course we already know from the Judicial Review brought against the Protocol that in trading terms Northern Ireland belongs more to the EU than it does to the UK. Similarly, we are aware that a core pillar of our constitutional status - Article Six of the Acts of Union - remains in suspension because of the Sea Border.

“Day and daily we see evidence of the outworkings of the pernicious Protocol which is driving an ever greater wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of our nation.

“It is remarkable that some Unionists have rolled over meekly to become Protocol implements in a Sinn Fein lead executive”.