And the lesson is beware the quagmire of Irish politics. Put
another way which is stronger, Irish Nationalism or Ireland’s loyalty to the
European Union.
There’s talk of a new border at the Gap of the North. The
Moyry pass is to be defended from those who rest beyond the Pale. Just as
Hadrian’s Wall was the limit of Roman control Juncker’s Border is the new
frontier for its latter-day equivalent in the shape of the European Union.
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| Two Walls 30 years apart. From Berlin in 1989 to the EU's Southern Flank between Hungary and Serbia. image 2018 from series War and the Plastik Heaven |
The big question is who will build, enforce and man its presence.
Who will punish those who flout its authority?
I recently visited the Border Wall at the EU southern flank.
From the Serbian side I was confronted by Hungarian border guards who informed
me I was breaking their laws by just taking a photograph of their fence. They
failed to arrest me because they could not make the incursion into Serbia. The conversation all seemed a bit silly. The guards were happy to hear I would be leaving the area after taking my pictures.
As we approach the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 2019 some of us are asking if Walls aren’t easy to live with or or indeed to live without. Juncker’s Border may prove to be more of a temporary face saving EU exercise that that of the Berlin Wall. The Moyry pass at the Gap of the North is now well defended by an alliance of British and Irish citizens determined to keep it open.
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| The Irish border at the Gap of the North pictured during the recent Troubles. Image from The South Armagh Citizens Wallpaper Project 2012 -2022 |
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