Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who met the British leader with First Minister Arlene Foster, said he told the prime minister that with Brexit, there was “no good news for the people of the north of Ireland”.
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We benefited from a common travel area between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for many years before either country was a member of the EU.
“But we’d had a common travel area between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for many years before either country was a member of the EU”.
“We are both agreed very firmly there will be no return to a hard border as existed”, Mr Kenny said to reporters outside Number Ten following the meeting.
Following the 23rd June Brexit vote, the prospect of border controls have been a major point of discussion, particularly for smaller United Kingdom nations like Northern Ireland.
After holding talks at Belfast’s Stormont Castle, Mrs May said: “Nobody wants to return to the borders of the past”.
Her trip today to meet Northern Ireland’s First and deputy First Ministers for talks follows similar ones to Edinburgh and Cardiff last week.
Northern Ireland on June 23 voted to stay in the European Union, with 56 percent voting “Remain”, putting it at odds with the United Kingdom’s 52-48 percent result in favor of leaving.
The referendum result also raises questions about the future of Northern Ireland, which saw decades of violence between Irish nationalists and British unionists before a late-1990s peace settlement.
The EU referendum saw 56% in Northern Ireland vote to remain and 62% in Scotland. This has sparked a renewed debate on a potential referendum on Irish reunification with the Republic of Ireland, an European Union member state.
When she was home secretary, May warned it was “inconceivable” that border arrangements with the Republic of Ireland would be unchanged by a Brexit vote.
There had been fears following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union that it could lead the reopening on a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland but both leaders have made steps over the past few days to ease such fears. The coalition, which includes members of the province’s two largest Irish national parties, said it would apply for a judicial review if the conditions of Brexit fail to safeguard the accord. It said that a post-Brexit deal between the European Union and World Trade Organisation would be “hugely damaging” to farmers in NI.
The visit to Northern Ireland came after May’s visits to Scotland and Wales to reassure leaders they would be fully involved in Brexit negotiations.
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“We face the future together in the knowledge that relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom have never been better and that spirit of partnership and friendship will guide all of our work together in the time ahead”, he added.
