A New Irish Conundrum !

As if British Prime Minister Theresa May doesn't have enough problems trying to sort out that Brexit negotiation with the EC, a referendum in Ireland has dumped fuel on the fire and created an impossible situation.  It has the ability to reignite the issue of the British hold on Northern Ireland and at the same time cause a major split in the ruling British Conservative party.

The power of the Roman Catholic church in Ireland saw draconian abortion laws that applied on both sides of that divided islands border.  For many years abortion was refused even when that refusal would result in the death of the mother and consequently there seemed an endless stream of
pregnant Irish women travelling to Britain where abortion was virtually freely available.

Despite vehement opposition from the Catholic church an Irish referendum voted sixty-six to thirty-three to overturn those draconian laws and the government of Ireland has promised to enact laws accordingly.  That raises the question of what happens to those strict abortion laws that will now continue to apply in Northern Ireland ?

The problem is that Northern Ireland at present lacks a government.   The power sharing agreement in place since the Good Friday accord has collapsed and many Irish questions are being settled in Westminster, and to further complicate matters, the British government needs the support of the socially conservative Democratic Unionist party of Northern Ireland to hold a positive balance in the British parliament.

It would be unthinkable for Britain to impose softer abortion laws in Northern Ireland without the consent of the Northern Ireland people, and that would involve a referendum result similar to the one held across the border, but with its government in abeyance Northern Ireland lacks the constitutional power to authorise such a referendum.

That power sharing agreement collapsed in 2017 and shows no signs of resumption.  The IRA fought a long and bitter war over the issue of a united Ireland and that issue is still a powder keg just waiting for reignition.  Already, the matter of a border between the two Irelands is festering as this British withdrawal from the EC seems to leave no chance of a soft border remaining.

The only hope of this being settled peacefully would be the resumption of the peace pact to restore Northern Ireland home rule and this issue being settled locally.   It is such an integral issue that it would need a referendum to clearly signal the wishes of residents and there is every hope that such a plebescite  would deliver a similar result.

It seems that Theresa May is heading to a showdown with some ministers and lawmakers in the British parliament who demand that she intercedes to implement softer abortion laws in Northern Ireland.  That could lose the support of the Democratic Unionist party and bring down her government.

For centuries Britain and Ireland have been locked in a deadly embrace.   That union now hinges on what sort of prosperity their people will share when this Brexit is finally settled.