If Arlene Foster's Democratic Unionist Party stymies that agreement, it would mark an unprecedented win for what was once a fringe group on the British political scene. But in the long term it could actually promote the very idea the DUP opposes above all else: a united Ireland. While the party supports Brexit, Northern Ireland voted 56 percent in favor of remaining in the EU, well above the national 48 percent remain vote. [...]
Of course, some checks already exist. But she is threatening to vote down the budget this month if she’s unhappy with what May agrees at an EU summit next week. That might not topple the government – but it would make it very tricky to govern, and potentially impossible if hardline Conservative Brexiters also decide to rebel.[...]
Negotiations over inquests into what are referred to as “legacy” issues have repeatedly bedeviled co-operation. More than 100 “peace walls” still separate Catholic and Protestant communities; the plan to remove them by 2023 looks wildly optimistic right now. Efforts to integrate an education system divided along religious lines have faltered. Public-sector housing estates are also deeply divided.[...]
“Neither Sinn Fein nor the DUP truly believe in a settlement based on multiple identities or pooled sovereignty – the kind facilitated by EU membership,” according to Matt O’Toole, a Northern Irishman who was chief press officer for Europe at 10 Downing Street during the referendum campaign. “Both now want to achieve something from Brexit that is less of a compromise than what existed before.”
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