The key sticking points holding up UK's divorce deal with EU / Hard Brexiters have just discovered Britain is weaker than Ireland Fintan O'Toole

The Irish border

The border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland remains the main roadblock in the path to progress to phase two of the Brexit talks this month.
On Monday all parties initially appeared to be confident that a deal could be reached that would avoid any hard border, which might upset peace in the north of the island after decades of violence.
Ireland insists a hard border would not just create trade barriers, it would also impact on social cohesion in border communities.
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'The drama of the Brexit talks on the Irish border shows how well the EU protects its members. Is there a lesson there? ..Having done so, they might now ask themselves: if, for the first time in 800 years, Ireland is proving to be in a much stronger political position than Britain, what does that say about what Brexit is doing to Britain’s strength? It is being forced to accept what it claimed to be unacceptable, not because Ireland has suddenly become a global superpower but because it has the unflinching support of EU member states, the European parliament, and the EU negotiating team. There might be a lesson in there somewhere for a country facing a future without the allies it has long taken for granted.
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