Brexit: Opinions from the border

In advance of this week’s European Council meeting, Morning Ireland's Cian McCormack travelled along the border from Dundalk to Donegal to find out whether the potential consequences of Brexit are hitting home. On the second day of his series, Cian visits Fermanagh, Cavan and Leitrim where people fear the unknown consequences of Britain leaving the EU.

Joe Parker is standing in County Cavan overlooking the rolling hills of Fermanagh when I meet him. It’s hard to tell the difference between north and south. It’s mostly green fields, hills and land from where I’m looking.

Parker extends his arm and points the neighbouring village of Belcoo in the distance. It’s nestled peacefully at the end of bridge that connects it to Blacklion in the Republic. "That’s the border," he says.

Parker has arranged to meet me at one of his farms. This one is at the southern side of the border at Killycarney, Blacklion. It’s early in the morning. Itch-inducing midges are thriving in the warm weather, so we promptly move from underneath the tree where we are standing as a swarm gathers overhead.

"We’re about a mile from the Fermanagh border here. We’re overlooking my home farm which is just over the border," says Joe as he shakes my hand, and as I swat away the flies that are irritating my skin.

A flock of healthy looking sheep – ewes and lambs – graze in the field beside us. Parker farms beef and sheep on 360 acres in the south and 225 acres north of the border at Belcoo.

There have been complications farming both sides of the border, Parker says, as he sets about explaining the imminent arrival of Brexit.

"You have to have keep every herd separate but it has worked grand so far," he says as he explains there are regulations for farming both sides of the border.

Despite these regulations Parker emphasises the relative freedom he has nowadays as he crosses the border countless times every day tending to work on both farms.

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He is concerned Brexit will impact on this freedom.

"At the moment it is free travel but if it came to a situation where I had to be stopped going back and forward I’d just have to give up farming on the south side of the border," says Parker.

"I would have to sell up my land in the south side because the north is my home and that is where my kids go to school".

The conversation leads to the contrasting differences between his childhood and his childrens’ today.

"Fifty years ago I didn’t know my Cavan neighbours here," says Parker who emphasises he did not know people south of the border.

"My own kids today grow up with their Cavan neighbours. It was because of the divide on the border that we were separated. That separation has disappeared massively over the last twenty years and it would be a disaster to see it coming back", he says.

"People don’t realise what this is going to bring. People think this thing Brexit is a bit of a joke. When it happens there is going to be mayhem."

Farming subsidies are also a major concern.

"EU funding has been very good to us but, obviously, if we are heading towards a Brexit we are going to be heading out of EU funding in northern Ireland".

"Britain is going to have to continue to subsidise us to keep the price of meat for the housewife buying it, but there is nothing in place. With Brexit there seems to be nothing in place and we seem to be heading in to the dark. Nobody knows.

"That’s the way it is, the known unknown. That is very scary for the likes of myself with lots of money borrowed after buying lots of land".

Parker says Brexit is a "Nightmare" and will cause difficulties and "mayhem".

"A total nightmare for everyone along the border. People don’t realise what this is going to bring. People think this thing Brexit is a bit of a joke. When it happens there is going to be mayhem," says Parker.

He adds Brexit has not crystallised in peoples’ minds yet. "Definitely not," he says. "People are talking about it and they don’t know what’s coming. There’s people talking about when the border comes back that it’ll be good. It’ll be back like the old days. Bits of old smuggling and things like that, but with computerised systems and all that now there is no such thing as smuggling."

Across the border at Belcoo, Peter Gallagher runs a convenience store, petrol station and agri-hardware business. For him, the lack of clarity about what Brexit means is frustrating.

"It is looking like the can is being kicked down the road where we are still going to be in limbo not really knowing what direction we are going," says Gallagher.

"For an area like this, open cross border trade is essential and anything that impedes or makes that more difficult will be of no benefit. It will be detrimental in the long run to the area. Whether Brexit is going to create that, or not, nobody knows. The frustration is we don’t know what direction this is all going."

That frustration is felt too along the border at Goldcircle mushrooms outside Monaghan. Mushroom farming business is deeply sensitive to currency fluctuation and Brexit creates more insecurities.

"Exchange rate is the biggest fear. If Sterling was on parity it would be very difficult for us," says it Goldcircle Mushrooms managing director Kieran Walsh.

"The big question for us is whether we will need a base in northern Ireland by taking over farmers there and growing mushrooms in northern Ireland

Already, a group of growers including Walsh’s Goldcircle Mushrooms are developing a compositing facility north of the border.

"From Jan 1 we will have a new compost year which will allow us to have a portion of our compost coming from Sterling. This will continue to take our exposure to Sterling down," Walsh says.

Similar frustrations are expressed by John Sheridan – the southwest Fermanagh representative of the Ulster Farmers Union and chairman of the Northern Ireland’s National Beef Association.

Sheridan says: "The North has a special status. We have the Good Friday Agreement. That is our special status".

Farmer John Sheridan — John Sheridan – the southwest Fermanagh representative and of the Ulster Farmers Union and chairman of the Northern Ireland’s National Beef Association – farms in county Fermanagh.

He meets me on highlands overlooking lower and upper Lough Nean lakes.

Dressed in a navy waterproof windcheater and wearing a brown leather outback hat he drives me in his green Land Rover Defender up the side of Cuilcagh Mountain. This Special Area of Conservation is where Sheridan farms on the northern side of the border.

His land edges the international border at the Cuilcagh Mountain Boardwalk – a renowned walking trail for tourists in county Fermanagh.

"The famous board walk brings thousands of people up to the international border everyday. You can come back out of the south down the board walk, or you can go up the boardwalk in to the south and there is not a fence of mankind on it," says Sheridan.

He says a border in the Irish Sea is the practical solution for Brexit.

"It looks to me that it is the peaceful effectual way. It is not affecting the sovereignty of Westminster. It is just about keeping the economic island of Ireland going," says Sheridan

"This would leave the North in a fantastic position because we could remain in Europe and at the same time trade with Britain," adds Sheridan.

"The bread and butter of our table tomorrow depends," he adds.

"People talk about a hard Brexit and a soft Brexit. To me there is no such thing as a soft Brexit. A Brexit is a Brexit and a border is a border," says Sheridan more vigorously as his Land Rover bounces up Cuilcagh Mountain’s gravel roadway.

"You cannot talk about a soft border. If you have a soft border legislation will come in layer upon layer as people realise" things don’t work.

"So any soft border of any kind becomes a hard border eventually," he says pointedly.

"People don’t see a border. It’s not even in their minds," adds Sheridan.

Leaving Sheridan and Cuilcagh Mountain behind I travel north west towards Donegal.

On the advice of locals, I take the narrow – sometimes badly surfaced - back roads along routes that were inaccessible in the past.

Stopping at Kiltyclogher in north County Leitrim, a random conversation with two women visiting the village from Garrison – which is north of the border – leads me to the Cosy Corner Coffee Shop.

The coffee shop, which operates as a pub at night and a cafe during the day, is busy. Here 15 women are hand pulling sheep wool around wooden pegs for a weaving class.

‘Women Along the Border’ is running a heritage craft workshop which is funded by EU money and run the North Leitrim Women’s Centre. This cross border initiative aims at fostering relationships between women living on both sides of the border.

The women I speak to are fearful of Brexit. The mere mention of it the brings back bad memories.

"Garrison is a mile-and-a-half from here, I was not able to come here a lot in times gone by. During the Troubles all the cross border roads in this area were blocked," Pamela Ferguson explains. She lives in the village of Garrison in county Fermanagh.

"It was impossible to cross to these small local villages," adds Pamela.

"I would dread the thought of a hard border again, the thought of custom checks and hold ups with 20 to 30 cars waiting to be checked and having to drive miles to get to an approved check point. It would really be a strain to the economy in this part of the country as well as the social and cultural life," added Pamela.

"I get asked by my daughter 'will I have to have a passport going to school?’. We don’t have any answers."

Jane Weir, also from Garison, echoes that concern.

"I am concerned about the unknown. We don’t know what is ahead of us. We dread and fear that we go back to a hard border that it reminiscent of the Troubles and we definitely don’t want that," says Weir.

"If there is a hard border we would probably cross that hard border about 10 times during the day. I’d be taking my daughter to school. I’d be going to local village to do my shopping. It would be a nightmare and that is just daily practical things for me," adds Weir.

Weir is a parent and her daughter attends St Mary’s High School in Brollagh on the border. The unknowns of Brexit are causing uncertainly and anxiety for some students.

"For young people who don’t remember what it is like they are frightened. They are concerned about what this means. I get asked by my daughter: ‘Will I have to have a passport going to school?’ We don’t have any answers", says Weir.

This series was broadcast on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1. You can listen to Cian’s report here:

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