Brexit gets triggered today, and the Northern Irish question remains unanswered

Into The Unknown

After months of blustering, protests, resignations and calls for a second referendum, Article 50 will officially be triggered today, meaning that the UK will leave the EU.

While many of broader UK matters surrounding trade, immigration and entry into the single market have yet to be ironed out, one of the most pressing issues continues to the fate of the UK's devolved institutions (and, more particularly, Northern Ireland).

With its heavy reliance on EU subsidies for the agricultural sector, its land border with the Republic of Ireland, added with the fact that 56% of Northern Irish voters voted against Brexit, the outcome that triggering Article 50 will have for the country is very much unknown.

To make matters worse, the failure of the major parties in Northern Ireland to form a government over the weekend means that the country is leaderless today.

In respond to developments, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has called on the Taoiseach to act in the national interest and repeated his call for a designated status for the North within the EU.

Brexit is an unprecedented situation which requires an unprecedented response. Taoiseach must act in the national interest @GerryAdamsSF pic.twitter.com/gBqkHA4BFs

— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) March 29, 2017

Heart of the Negotiations

In an extensive article published in The Irish News this morning, Charlie Flanaghan, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, said that he would put Northern Irish interests at the heart of Brexit negotiation talks.

"Brexit is a British policy that I spoke against. But as a democrat, I must respect the overall outcome of last June’s referendum. I do recognise however that 56 per cent of voters in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.

"In our capacity as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, the Irish Government is doing all it can to ensure that the interests of the people of Northern Ireland are protected in the difficult and complex negotiations ahead.

"There will be challenges in the areas of policing and justice cooperation, cross-border working arrangements, educational exchanges and much more.

"I am determined that the Irish Government will do all it can to keep the interests of Ireland, north and south, at the heart of the negotiation."

United Ireland

This all comes after a leaked ministerial letter from the UK Brexit Secretary, David Davis, indicated that Northern Ireland would be able to rejoin the EU if it voted to reunite with the Republic.

According to The Times, Davis wrote to an SDLP MP, saying: “If a majority of the people of Northern Ireland were ever to vote to become part of a united Ireland the UK Government will honour its commitment to enable that to happen.”

This apparently apolitical outlook to Northern Ireland's constitutional place, coupled with the lack of a unionist majority in Northern Ireland for the first time in history, places the triggering of Article 50 in an interesting context. The constitutional position of Scotland has already raised its head in a big way, with Nicola Sturgeon calling for a second Scottish independence referendum. Is a similar referendum on its way in Northern Ireland?

Media Response

Elsewhere, UK newspapers have given their own response to events...

29 March 2017. Front pages of some of this morning's newspapers on the day that Article 50 is officially triggered and Brexit begins pic.twitter.com/Wt8Rv2QRTV

— Noelle O Connell (@Noelle_OC) March 29, 2017

...including this liberty-taking graphic from The Guardian, which seems to incorporate Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal into the UK.

Newsflash: Donegal, Leitrim and Cavan are also leaving the European Union, according to The @guardian pic.twitter.com/VnWka8Nrgp

— Ronan McGreevy (@RMcGreevy1301) March 28, 2017