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26th Feb 2019

Patrick Kielty is once again speaking a whole lot of sense about Brexit

Alan Loughnane

Patrick Kielty Northern Ireland

Patrick Kielty is making a habit of this…

Irish comedian Patrick Kielty knows better than most the tragedy caused by The Troubles. His own father was shot dead in 1988 by paramilitary forces.

In recent months, he has dismantled high-profile figures who made false claims about Brexit, including former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and Tory MP Boris Johnson.

Villiers made the bizarre claim that there’s “no reason” why the UK and Northern Ireland will have to change their border arrangements in the event of Brexit. She claimed they’d been broadly consistent in the 100 years since the creation of Ireland as a separate state.

Kielty was quick to outline just exactly how wrong Villiers was in her bizarre claim.

Meanwhile, he also posted a long Twitter thread where he broke down all the details that politicians like Boris Johnson seem to be oblivious to.

Now, in a column in The Guardian, Kielty has outlined exactly what he thinks will happen if Britain continues to drift down their current path.

“Most people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU because there have only ever been two options post-Brexit – customs checks at the Irish border or in the Irish Sea,” Kielty wrote.

“Each would cause divisions just as we were bridging the gaps (in spite of our politicians). Depressingly, there’s no way through this.”

He outlined how the people of Northern Ireland do not want a return of a hard border and the potential violence that could accompany it.

“Even at this late stage, it remains the unanswered question – how can you take back control of your borders when the only land border you have can’t be put back in place?” Kielty said.

“The fact that more than 70% of people in Northern Ireland voted to give up control of that border via the Good Friday agreement so they could live in peace remains totally ignored.”

The current trajectory of negotiations between UK MPs among themselves and, indeed, with the European Union, means that a border poll and a united Ireland is inevitable, according to Kielty.

“On the one side is May’s deal (complete with backstop),” he said. “On the other is the ERG and a hard Brexit.

“If the DUP buckles on the backstop, party members will walk away with their UK sovereignty between their legs. For those of us who have their early albums, this isn’t going to happen.

“Which leaves just one option. The DUP holds firm and jumps off the cliff with the ERG, knowing a hard Brexit is the only scenario that guarantees a hard border in Ireland, a border poll in Northern Ireland and the perfect economic storm where it could lose that vote.

“By trying to be the most British person in the room, the DUP could actually end up the most Irish.”