Letter: Dublin once turned down a good deal from London - that the UK and Republic of Ireland make joint application to the then Common Market

Dr Declan O’Donovan (‘The Windsor Framework does not replace the protocol, but it does and always could amend it,’ March 6, see link below) will also recall a good deal that London proposed to Dublin that the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland make not separate applications but one joint application to the then Common Market, now evolved into the European Union, for joint admission.

Dublin turned down the proposal In its desire as ever to be seen as a ‘place apart’. If it had not rejected the proposal and the joint application had been accepted a go-it-alone Brexit today on the part of London would have been impossible. An opportunity for Dublin to have had some influence was thereby lost.

Today the International EU border partitions Ireland of which Dublin was reminded a while back when Europe’s Deep Establishment (as Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s former Finance Minister, refers to Brussels in his book ‘Adults in the Room’) “forgot” to inform Dublin first before announcing that it was invoking Article 16 to block medicines from reaching England via Northern Ireland. Point made, the EU border is not down the Irish Sea but partitions Ireland, the matter was forgotten.

What the future holds for these islands known as Britannic to the geographers, who knew of Europe as Europa, is now anyone’s guess.

WA Miller, Belfast BT13

Letter: The Windsor Framework does not replace the protocol, but it does and always could amend it