Emer O’Toole’s opinion in the Guardian discussing the reinstatement of a physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland following Brexit with reference to the Policy Paper on Brexit, Ireland and Northern Ireland written by Dr. Sylvia de Mars, Mr. Colin Murray, Prof. Aoife O’Donoghue and Dr. Ben Warwick.
Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland secretary and a Brexiter, claimed during campaigning that the common travel agreement (CTA) between Ireland and the UK would prevent border checks from becoming necessary. However, a policy paper published by academics at Newcastle and Durham universities is blunt in its refutation of the post-Brexit power of the CTA: there is “virtually no possibility” that the border will continue operating as it is. As it explains, “the UK-Ireland border would represent an external border to the EU as a whole. There are no other ‘external’ EU borders that do not come with border controls.”