Northern Ireland Leave Voters

[SistemaAddict]

Inspired by Bellini's thread on the backstop compromise I got to wondering about the leave voters of Northern Ireland and the GFA.
If you are in NI and voted leave, what were your reasons for doing so and how does the GFA fit in with your vote?

I am not being goady before anyone accuses me of that. I am genuinely interested in how the voters of Northern Ireland saw and see this. Many remainers have expressed grave concern over the integrity of the GFA after brexit but I don't recall hearing from NI Leavers on threads. I am very concerned about upholding the peace process and can't see a way forward that doesn't threaten that.

Hmmm, I don't know many, but one young work colleague said something about being able to trade more globally, New Zealand lamb etc.

I have seen a dairy farmer in NI in TV trotting out all the stuff about sovereignty but also referring to the genuine concern about EU farming rules. It was rather sad that he thought leaving the EU would solve it. He seemed like a decent bloke who cared about his industry. But he hadn't thought it through.

The percentages were approx 44% leave and 56% stay. There are a lot of leavers here, just not very vocal about it on mumsnet.

2 NI friends of ours voted leave. They said "because of farming" but didn't go into any more detail. When i asked how on earth they thought ot was going to work wrt the GFA the just shifted awkwardly on their seats and mumbled about it being difficult for the border counties. I suspect if they had been old enough they would not have voted in support of the GFA.

I know several who voted Leave because they thought it would push through a poll on a United Ireland quicker and several who voted Leave because they want to retain their Britishness and would quite like to dismantle the GFA.

One I know - anti-EU, it's undemocratic yadeh yadeh ya. She's also a right wing evangelist Christian sort so I don't give her opinions much validity to be honest! Also things because airlines have "plans in place" all will be fine. Project fear etc.

But leave could have meant staying in the SM/CU so on that basis would have had no additional impact on NI. There was no nuance in the vote so it’s a pointless question.

That being said, the No dealers I know here tend to be Hard line Unionists who don’t really care about the GFA and are of the “who is gonna build a border” / “technological solutions” stance. Or hardline Republicans who want to force a border poll. In other words, stupid.

The DUP brainwashed a lot into voting leave because it was the ‘British’ thing to do.

But I agree that it was never discussed as a no deal option so the implications for farming and border didn’t really come up.

My brother voted leave the only one in the family there to do so. He has since changed his mind because he never envisaged this 'utter shit show of a mess'.