Jesuit Bishop Alan McGuckian says that Northern Ireland must continue to be recognised as a ‘special case’, in this post-Brexit era. He says the Good Friday Agreement is what allows the Britishness of Northern Ireland citizens, and the Irishness of  Northern Ireland citizens, to be acknowledged and respected.

Writing in an opinion piece published in The  Mail on Sunday, 14 October, 2018, the Bishop of Raphoe, Co. Donegal, he said, “Northern Ireland remains a special case and it must have special status to reflect that fact. It should remain a part of the United Kingdom and it must also retain all of the special relationships with the rest of Ireland that the Good Friday Agreement mandates.”

Bishop McGuckian  also drew parallels between the two female British Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Teresa May. Many years ago Mrs Thatcher, in an effort to placate the Unionist population, once proclaimed that Northern Ireland was “As British as Finchley,” a typical English town and Thatcher’s parliamentary constituency.  “The claim drew smiles even then”, notes the Bishop, ” because… it simply is not so.”  This is because the statement completely ignores the fact that half of Northern Ireland (unlike Finchly) is made up of Nationalists,  and for them, “Northern Ireland is as Irish as Connemara though it is not Irish in the same way as Connemara is.”

Eventually, Mrs Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish agreement. It paved the way for her successors to sign up to the Good Friday Agreement, which has yielded many years of peace in the country.

Today, Prime Minister Teresa May often refers to the “integrity of the United Kingdom” when referring to Irish border and its fate post-Brexit, the Bishop notes. This may be of comfort to pro-Brexit Unionsits like the DUP , “but Mrs May must remember that when Margaret Thatcher made her peace with the truth about Northern Ireland, British AND Irish, she did it in the face of fierce opposition from the DUP. Their opposition was rooted in a rigid reading of the claim that ‘Northern Ireland is as British as Finchley’ and it needed to be faced down then.”  In essence, Bishop McGUckian says the claim needs to be faced down today as well, if we are to protect the “precious peace” on this island and uphold the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, an internationally binding treaty.

Northern Ireland should indeed remain part of the UK he argues, “and it must also retain all of the special relationships with the rest of Ireland that the Good Friday Agreement mandates. That Agreement called for ‘parity of esteem’ for the two national identities, recognising the right of all citizens to be considered as Irish or British or, indeed, both.”.

This being the case, Bishop McGuckian believes, “The ‘backstop’ proposal – that there must be a common regulatory area on the island of Ireland in order to safeguard North-South cooperation and the all-island economy – is essential if the gains from the Good Friday Agreement are not to be thrown aside.”