QUB law professor says new Irish border will be removed

The comment from Professor Colin Harvey came on Saturday at a protest where several hundred people – prominent among whom were many Sinn Féin members – took part in several anti-Brexit demonstrations on the border.

Border Communities Against Brexit organised the protests which took place along a number of crossing points in Tyrone, Louth, Donegal, Fermanagh, Cavan and Monaghan and were timed for what was meant to be the first day after the UK left the EU.

Amid continued uncertainty about the shape of Brexit, Colin Harvey, a professor of human rights law at Queen’s University’s School of Law, delivered an uncompromising message.

The academic said he is against any attempt to “undermine or attack” the Good Friday Agreement.

He said: “We have long experience of people trying to put walls in our way and we take them down.

“If anybody attempts to put barriers on this island again they are coming down. Any obstacles on this island will be removed.

“We as a society are used to people putting up mountains for us to climb and we will continue to climb them. There will be no hard border on the island of Ireland.”

Prof Harvey went on: “We are going to be the generation who ends the major division on this island, who can achieve the unification of our own country and we are going to get there.”

Speaking at a protest, he also said: “I know that we’re not supposed to be talking about this ... but we’re going to keep talking about it: We are going to be the generation who ends the major division on this island ... we are the generation who can achieve the unification of our own country – and we are going to get there.”

Demonstrators set up a mock check-point on the Old Dublin Road in Carrickcarnon which was manned by people dressed as customs officers.

The road was closed to members of the public as protesters carried anti-Brexit placards and EU flags.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald was joined by party vice-president Michelle O’Neill and Newry and Armagh Sinn Fein Assembly member Conor Murphy.

Border Communities Against Brexit spokesman Declan Fearon warned a ‘crash Brexit’ is “increasingly likely”. He said: “We won’t allow the very hard right-wing Tories and the ERG and especially the DUP to destroy this community and bring us back to days when this was an economic wasteland.”

Around 300 people gathered at the border on a road that was closed during the Troubles.

Many similar protests were staged on various border points between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Ms McDonald said: “We are at a very dangerous moment where we inch ever closer to the real possibility of a crash and a chaotic Brexit.

“At this stage people should understand how serious that would be for all of us.

“The reality is that Brexit in any form is a disaster for the island of Ireland.”

She also accused the DUP of being “seduced” by Westminster.

She added: “The people who live in the north of Ireland wish to continue in a society that is someway prosperous, that’s stable and many people identify not just as Irish but also as Europeans. They did not consent to Brexit.

“They will never, never, never give up on that point either.”

Local student Aine Quinn, who lives along the border, said she believed that Brexit will bring economic chaos to the area.

She said: “Yesterday was supposed to be Brexit day and today we are no clearer on what that means than we were three years ago.

“What we do know is that there are no good outcomes for us. The British Government tried to dismiss us as a small issue among other big issues.

“The main problem for me and my community is the free movement of people, whether to work, study or trade.”