Safe to say it divided opinion.
Brexit was front and centre of the news agenda on Tuesday, when British Prime Minister Theresa May outlined the approach she’d be taking in the upcoming negotiations about Britain’s departure from the European Union.
To say that the speech divided opinion depending on the political allegiances of the audience would be an understatement.
Gerry Adams, for example, didn’t hold back in his assessment, claiming that May’s confirmation that Britain will be leaving the single market means that it is “on course for a so-called Hard Brexit” and that the “economic and political implications of this for the people of this island are significant”.
Others criticised the fact that May seemed to want to cherry pick the benefits of an association with the EU in the upcoming negotiations, while there were elements of the fourth estate across the pond who made no bones of the fact that they were impressed by what they deemed as May’s hardline approach.
The contrasting viewpoints were best summed up in the front pages of the Daily Mail and German daily newspaper Die Welt on Wednesday morning (see below).
DAILY MAIL FRONT PAGE: "Steel of the New Iron Lady" #skypapers pic.twitter.com/QMfD7Ca3PB
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 17, 2017
So lonely pic.twitter.com/iBs7zUbWzc
— WELT KOMPAKT (@weltkompakt) January 17, 2017
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge