Ministers from north and south in Ireland will be meeting as these two flags begin to drift apart
By Anthony Neeson
Irish government ministers and ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive are to meet next week to discuss the implications of the Britain leaving the European Union.
Monday’s meeting will be the first opportunity for Taoiseach Enda Kenny to sit down with First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in the aftermath of last Thursday’s Brexit vote.
On Monday, both the Dáil and Stormont held debates on the referendum result and how it affects both parts of Ireland.
While Britain voted to leave the EU, both Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain.
With the British pound plummeting, British Prime Minister David Cameron resigning in the wake of the result, a coup taking place within the ranks of the British Labour Party against leader Jeremy Corbyn, Scotland moving towards a second independence referendum, and Sinn Féin calls for a united Ireland border poll, the UK has been thrown into political crisis.
Speaking before the Stormont debate, Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister, Máirtin Ó Muilleoir, said he believed Stormont has a veto “over attempts to force us out of the EU.”
The Sinn Féin man said: “A decision was taken last Thursday which a greater number of people did not ascribe to in the north of Ireland.
“My job as government minister is to calm the waters, but I don’t want to minimize the depth of the challenge.
“The Irish government has scaled back its prediction of growth in the year ahead. It’s being predicted in Britain that there will be a recession.
“This is a grave crisis as we have faced in four decades and it’s our job to find a way through this maze, but also the mandate must be respected – the majority here voted to remain.”
Speaking in the Stormont chamber, Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt, whose party campaigned for a Remain vote, said “we are facing a political crisis.”
“The result is the result. But within Northern Ireland 56% voted to remain.
“We have entered an era of uncertainty that will last years, not months.
“Why is there no contingency plan to deal with this calamity?”
The DUP’s Christopher Stalford called on MLAs to accept the result.
“Had the vote gone the other way, I would have had to take it on the chin and moved on,” he said.
However, in its editorial on Monday, the Northern Ireland daily newspaper, the Irish News – which has a mainly nationalist readership – said: “Whatever happens the union between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has plainly been thrown into the melting pot.”
