Chai Brady
Fr Joe McVeigh A priest based in Fermanagh has said Boris Johnson is not taking the Good Friday Agreement “seriously” in the wake of the UK prime minister introducing legislation that would override the Brexit treaty.
Provisions in the UK Internal Market Bill would give Mr Johnson’s government the power to override key provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement, with the EU commissioner Maros Sefcovic saying the bill was in breach of international law.
Fr Joe McVeigh who ministers in Enniskillen expressed concern about what this would mean for the Good Friday Agreement.
He said: “Boris Johnson is not taking it seriously at all. The EU are taking it seriously, I hope the Dublin Government is taking it seriously, America is taking it seriously, so Johnson is isolated and he won’t be there forever.
“There’ll be no physical border across Ireland, never, that has been settled in the Good Friday Agreement, that was part of the deal.”
Regarding the idea of a hard border, he said: “I don’t foresee any violence but I do foresee people resisting, by peaceful means, which is what we have been involved in for the last five years, resistance to a border.
“When I say ‘we’ I mean communities along the border, we call ourselves ‘Border Communities Against Brexit’, they’re a very well organised group along the border who will mobilise people to oppose any attempt by non-violent, peaceful, means, there’s no question that violence will be on the agenda again.”
Hard border
The EU will have “step up to the plate” to devise a plan to work without a hard border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, he said.
“If there’s a no deal, as seems likely, then the EU have a real problem to deal with because the line across Ireland then becomes the boundary with Europe, so it’s an EU problem to be dealt with politically however they can manage that, but the EU are well aware that the Irish Government and the Irish people don’t want any shape of a physical border in the country: now how they work out customs and all that is another question.”