to think there must be some kind of border in Ireland / Northern Ireland because of people

[kalapattar]

All the talk has been about goods and services.

But how will people travel between the UK and Ireland without a physical border? Passport checks, immigration status etc. There won't be a border between mainland UK and Northern Ireland so how will this work?

She can't even bring herself to correctly name the international treaty that over 70% of her fellow citizens voted for

He/she is not from NI!

I don't even understand Julie's posts or what she's getting at. Maybe that's a good thing.

I don't think Julie is Northern Irish either. My experience of hardline loyalists is that while they do spout a load of nonsense, they do at least know their history! I'm not sure Julie would even know how to tell a Protestant from a Catholic.

Well then, she's no excuse and I'm sorry to contradicting the assertion I highlighted.

Silently even if you are wrong, I think your point about her being surrounded by people who share her views is a good one. She doesn't seem to have any idea she isn't the norm. Or that she is naming the treaty incorrectly!

I agree with Somerville, like she said the syntax used is all wrong.

She isn't naming the Treaty incorrectly, she using a name that is used by some. Now I'll grant you that Julie is a right pain in the hole, she pops up on this threads with alarming regularity, almost like a klaxon has been sounded. But she's not the only one that pops up with ridiculous statements and a lack of basic understanding.
I read an article by Newton Emerson a few days ago, it was on my FB so either the Irish Times or Independent - he used the phrase Belfast Agreement the whole way through it.

I know it's an alternative name, but she is refusing to acknowledge that the majority of people will know it by a different name.

Or that she is naming the treaty incorrectly!

That bit is interesting, some posters are going along with that and using the correct name and the sectarian/loyalist name. It doesn't take much for people to accept the drip feed, even when they're aware of what's behind it.

Newton Emerson describes himself as a unionists, he began his career in journalism with an online magazine that AOL pulled for being "abusive", "racist", and was likely to cause "offence and anxiety".

I'd call him a loyalist.

No, ignoring the Belfast/ Good Friday agreement stuff, even then the posts are off. Lack of understanding of what the border is actually like and what it'll take, the confusion between Catholic /Nationalist.

Mostly, no unionist I know trusts the UK government as far as it can throw them, let alone regurgitates Boris Johnson style ideas for how the border will work. Most of their joy at the DUP having the critical vote in the UK parliament was so it would prevent NI being screwed over. Look at Diane Dodds asking for the EU for special treatment after the Brexit vote, she got her arse handed to her in a polite political way but the knowledge it could cause chaos was there.

I'm sure he'd call himself a loyalist too, that's ok he's allowed to be one, that doesn't invalidate his writing or his opinion.

He can call the GFA, the Belfast Agreement if he wants, it's not what I call it or what anyone I know call it. I feel the same way way when someone uses the phrase Roman Catholic as opposed to Catholic - it's said to make a point but it doesn't make it wrong, it might make the person sound like a bit of a dick but again that's their prerogative.

Everyone is getting so caught up in the naming of the GFA - it gets called both. It isn’t meant as a slight or as a Loyalist term to call it the Belfast agreement

The U.K. government papers call it the Belfast agreement, the UN calls it the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, the Irish Government call it the GFA. It tends to be GFA on the news and when referred to now but I’ve heard both interchangeably.

It’s the least frustrating thing about Julie’s posts...

Flavia is explaining it better than I did. (Have you had your baby, BTW Flav?)

It’s the least frustrating thing about Julie’s posts...

I kind of agree, Lobster. But especially online where its so much quicker to type GFA, it feel like it's being done to make a point. It immediately marks him/her out as one of those people who (tried to!) correct me, when I moved to England, for saying I was from "Derry in the north of Ireland". In my family that's what the city and region were called, all the time. My Protestant friends totally accept that just like I accept when they say "County Londonderry" or "Ulster" or whatever - we don't want to focus on the differences in the ways we were raised, but to find common ground and build from there.
And although I name that area "the north of Ireland", sometimes online people find that confusing, or I get fed up of typing the whole thing, so I write "NI". The fact that the poster in question never shortens "Belfast Agreement", despite a general lack of precision with their language, is indicative of them attempting to goad, in my opinion.

Ah, thanks for asking Somerville I'm 37 weeks on Wed so I've taken to shouting "come out, your time is up" every so often but they're not taking the hint though tbf I'll be happy enough if they wait until this cold spell passes, I couldn't get out of the street yesterday with the wheels spinning out.

How's your wee one doing?

Well the PM is about to make a speech telling us how it's all going to be resolved.
Or not.

I see what you mean - I think that the more posters get wound up about it, the less likely she is to stop it because technically She’s doing nothing wrong though.

Our dear leader has spoken and she wants a border, but not a hard border. If such a thing is possible, what's to stop people in the EU crossing this soft border?

I knew it, Julie is TM

^^ironic not amused - this really isn't funny.

To the previous posters saying "Oh thanks but no thanks Ireland don't want NI back" can i just say FUCK YOU!! As an Irish person living in the North I, and people like me are just as Irish as you or anyone else in the South. Who do you think you are to try and tell us what our own country thinks.
It's people like you that make me think we should leave the UK and Ireland to it and set up our own wee country. Independent Northern Ireland sounds good. With the way the UK government are carrying on at the minute I don't think the Unionists would take too much persuading either!

Liquid, I’m pretty sure scotland and NI could join forces to make a great wee country...

Especially if we get that bridge lobster !

Could you imagine an independent Northern Ireland? We'd fail at the first hurdle because they'd have their first ever meeting of parliament and they'd sit down and say 'what will we call our lovely new country?'. We can't call it Ulster, Northern Ireland, the North of Ireland, the Six Counties, or anything else that has ramifications. It needs to be something entirely new.

And everyone would hmm and ha and eventually someone would say 'what about GreenOrangeLand? That would cover everyone, it would be a lovely new beginning!' And immediately someone else would say 'that's a disgrace. It should be OrangeGreenLand!' And the whole thing would deteriorate from there...

I suspect a great many Irish people would like to see a single Irish state on the island, Liquid. There would be teething problems, to say the least, but eventually true regional planning and growth could take place, and EU funds could be harnessed for infrastructure and development. Tax currently lost to administrations both north and south would be recouped. The strengths of both education systems would add value.

I think eventually there would be a true progressive vs. conservative political divide in Ireland, with conservative Free Presbyterians joining forces with equally conservative factions elsewhere on the island. Equally, left of centre groups north and south might coalesce. There might be a Christian Democrat centre.

Treacle. That's scarily accurate, I suspect.

I remember in 1971 my dad suggesting a big ditch all along the border, big enough to float it off and push it into the North Sea so that they actually had to sit down and talk (and listen) to eachother.

He might well have been right.