Letters: Joint British-Irish direct rule is not a solution for the problems in Northern Ireland

Two very dangerous phrases of the past have recently resurfaced in Northern Ireland which is ‘joint authority and interference’.

These two explosive terms have been at the forefront of trouble in Northern Ireland from as long as anyone can remember.

Obviously there are those who have given up on the idea that devolution at Stormont is going to work and that’s understandable given the on and off stalemate since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in 1998. So the default in some people’s minds is joint authority.

Like a united Ireland, a joint authority concept has no blueprint and would probably lead to all out civil war in Northern Ireland with factions and governments getting into dangerous disagreements.In fact, it’s insane if one thinks it through and the problems it would create, rather than solve.

The Irish constitution would have to be amended in any case and the GFA would be rendered completely redundant.

This would be very destabilising and a major shift away from cross community support.

Then there is the issue of tension-causing word ‘interference’. A clear line must be drawn between interference and co-operation.

North/South economic cooperation is acceptable to unionists, but interference by the Irish government in Northern Ireland’s affairs will never be.

This is also fair enough because interference is unilateral but co-operation is consensual and bilateral and in line with the cross community support principle.

One is indeed troubled to hear phrases of the past such as interference and joint authority and recently joint direct rule.

News reports of loyalists coming to the boil are also surfacing and ‘loose talk’ of either interference or joint authority is going to send Northern Ireland flying back to the past in no time and rekindle the fires of hell.

Joint direct rule is not a solution for the problems in Northern Ireland which are predominantly linked to Brexit and the history of Ulster and any notion of interference should always be replaced by a working postulate of co-operation.

Maurice Fitzgerald, Shanbally, Co Cork