to ask if you know what the Irish backstop is and do you care

[HurricaneFloss]

If you know what it is, please explain it very simply to me.

If you care - why?

If you don't - why?

Even some of the Irish Garda, along the border, cooperated with IRA and collided in smuggling.

*colluded

What year are we in now?

Ohh goody. Another bigot 🧦

I can guarantee you that it's too late now. Northern Ireland is not wanted now.

I care because I’m Northern Irish. This thread has been a pretty disheartening read!

This may be a more personal reply than you were asking for, but I care so much because I have a son who has just started primary school, and right now I literally can’t imagine what the place is going to be like as he grows up. That’s a wee bit scary.

Someone's going to regret this when they've sobered up!

Don’t take those two arsehole bigots to heart, HalfPintPixie. They’re just delighted to have someone they ‘think’ they are superior to. Shows what sad, narrow little lives they have.

As your average Joe Irish girl who briefly lived in Coleraine (which is very beautiful), I could not deal with being asked what religion I was every day. Something that never crossed my mind was something that crossed their minds every minute. I'm a bit of a heathen anyway so am irreligious these days but they still want to know!

@HalfPintPixie well apparently you deserve whatever's coming because you're a mad bastard with a massive chip in your shoulder.

Or maybe you're just someone who is concerned about your child's future after the bloody mess that is Brexit. As anyone with half a brain is. I'm astounded by this thread.

Only one person calling names here.

Right, I’m away to bed. I’ve to get up in four hours! Much love to all the wonderful British and Irish citizens from NI. Have a peaceful night and don’t let the wee bigots get you down. They’ve enough problems in the South, so are just lashing out, to relieve their stress. Oíche mhaith.

It's not the south madam. It's Ireland.

Almost everyone I know of my generation are open minded, kind, generous people who just want to get on with their lives. We are embarrassed by the DUP and how we are represented in the media, and simply want to try and move forward.

I think as time goes on and the older generations die out to be replaced with younger ones, we will start to see a real change. At least I hope so!

I hope so too. But don't be dragging Ireland into it.

Maybe you should go to bed now, Chiffon. Seems like you get grumpy when you’re tired!

I'm neither grumpy or tired. I'm merely stating what 4 million of us are thinking.

Yeah I know what the backstop is: it's a fudge that Theresa May had to put into the deal at the last round of talks to stop them stalling all together, but as there is no deal that satisfies all three of Ireland, the DUP and hard Brexiteers within her own party, it was only ever a way of kicking the can further down the road. And here we are.

(The three possible outcomes are 1. Stay in the single market/customs union, Tory hard Brexiteers will veto in parliament. 2. Great Britain comes out of the customs union, NI stays in: DUP will veto in parliament. 3. The whole of the UK comes out of the customs union and our land border with the EU becomes a hard border: Ireland will veto that deal at the EU.)

I care because the UK has a responsibility not to restart the Troubles, in a nutshell: politically things have been fragile in NI for a while now with polarisation of the politics and as I understand it Stormont not in session as they can't get a coalition to rule. So they don't need any additional pressure. And that a British prime minister would lose sight of this issue that was obviously going to be a problem from day 1 seems just so irresponsible. They really could not give a shit about NI, could they?
I also care about the backstop because if she hadn't given that assurance back in whenever it was, it would have been clearer that this was going to be a problem, it would have focused minds, whatever showdown we're going to get between the Brexiteers and the DUP might already have taken place. For this all to be still in the air with 6 months to go means it's more and more likely that we end up with some hideous fudge that makes noone happy.

I may not know what it is but I understand how it came about.

May didn't put backstop in... EU insisted on Backstop before they would proceed to other negotiations. May decided* Backstop was just empty words on paper of no consequence. Since then EU often points at backstop & reminds "But you agreed to this as the last resort..."

*similar to another poster said "Backstop= theoretical nonsense that will never happen. "

I understand the general principles that are the crux of the negotiations about the Brexit situation/imminent disaster regarding Northern Ireland - hadn't come across the term "backstop" to describe it before though - but I don't get to watch as much news as I used to pre kids.

Just come on to see if anyone has had any bright ideas for sorting this shit show. Guess not.

Chiffon To another Irish person your attitude is shocking, The Irish I know all have respect and empathy for the troubles in NI. Compassion for the people who died, it is a shame to us that we had to leave the 6 county's behind in a war zone.