Bobby McDonagh: Ireland's interest lies with France in Brexit fisheries dispute

• Published date: 08 November 2021

However, there can be no doubt which side of the current disagreement we have the greater affinity with. There are four main reasons for this.

First and foremost, Ireland and France are members of the European Union, a close partnership that our British friends, very sadly, chose to leave. EU membership involves a high degree of mutual commitment and a natural solidarity in international relations.

Some British politicians and commentators seem, in recent years, to misread the nature of EU membership. They speak of the UK developing its relationship with individual EU member states, either bilaterally or through organisations such as Nato, as if France or, say, Finland could have a relationship with the UK that is somehow separate from their EU membership, as if they could wear one hat when dealing with Brussels and another when dealing with London.

Any genuine attempt by the UK to deepen its relationship with individual member states should be welcomed and reciprocated. This is especially true of Ireland given our geographical proximity, our complex mutual history, the deep friendship between our peoples and our shared responsibility for peace on this island, even if that shared responsibility is no longer as respected as it should be.

However, the UK must understand that the only relationship Ireland can have with it, on any issue, is as a member state of the European Union. Ireland necessarily views the world, including the current fishing dispute, through a European prism. The UK itself shared that perspective for over half a century. The EU is part of what Ireland and France are, not an organisation in which from time to time our interests intersect.

Peace process

The second reason for our affinity with France in this instance is the strong support we have received from France, as from our other EU partners, throughout the Brexit process. The EU has prioritised addressing the profound implications of Brexit for the peace process. It did so from the outset even when those implications were being dismissed by the hardline Brexiteers, with Boris Johnson even suggesting that dealing with the acute sensitivities of the Irish Border was akin to managing London's traffic congestion charges. The EU has continued its constructive approach, most recently by bending its own rules significantly to introduce the precise flexibilities in the application of the Northern Ireland protocol that the business community...