Last week I was challenged about something I wrote 20 years ago and asked if I had any evidence. 
Well, not evidence that could be tested in a court of law, but I stood over what I said and believe it to be spot on. But it shows a mindset that anyone’s assertion is up for debate nowadays.
Likewise, I read that years ago women in Border areas used to smuggle butter in their underwear to get past customs posts. Now, to be honest, I am not in a position to say that this definitely happened. (I’m wondering who could verify it!) 
But I reckon it happened, as did a lot of other things along the “frontier”. 
The arbitrary line drawn around six north-eastern counties nearly a hundred years ago has certainly dominated life on this island for all of that time, and it’s a Border which is very much under the spotlight again with the looming withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, labelled Brexit.
I’ll admit the whole Brexit debate passes me by a little, even though it will have a major impact on life in this area.  Possibly part of my lack of enthusiasm is the fact that nobody really knows what is going to happen. 
Heck, even the British Government haven’t much of a clue what’s happening to their own back yard, and they really don’t care much about the circumstances here.
A columnist in the New York Times, under the headline “No one knows what Britain is any more”, described the country as “a modest-sized ship on the global ocean” and said voting to leave the EU left it “unmoored, heading to nowhere.”
Ouch! Sometimes the truth hurts, particularly coming from a supposed special relationship friend.
But if Britain is so lost, what happens next to Northern Ireland, where a majority did after all vote to remain?
If you’re in your mid-40s or younger, you will never have known a situation where Ireland, north or south, was outside the European Union. 
The Republic and the UK did, after all, join on the same day in 1973. 
At a time when United States President Richard Nixon was just re-elected and weeks away from getting his country out of Vietnam, this side of the Atlantic saw a coming together of erstwhile enemies. France, especially under Charles de Gaulle, had blocked Britain’s entry for much of the 1960s, but eventually they entered the then European Economic Community in 1973.
Interestingly, in view of events today, the Government of the day in Britain had the authority to enter the EEC, although after some recrimination over the terms a referendum was held two years later when Britons voted 67 per cent in favour.
Ireland held its vote before going in, and in January 1973 Britain and Ireland became members on the same day. So, the fact that soon one of the countries could be in and another out of the EU is uncharted territory and quite what this means for all sorts of things in Ireland is a matter of conjecture.
Perhaps we should remember, however, that we’ve had a century of dealing with issues thrown up by a Border.
I believe that partition created many problems for Ireland. Many people, for reasons of national identity mostly, get agitated with me when I say that. But let’s face it, partition created two sectarian states at the time, with a Catholic dominated Free State in the south and a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people in the north; with two economies and two of everything on a small island.
Everything revolved around the Border, even its very existence a point of contention. Stories of smuggling are legendary, with duties on household necessities such as butter, bread, tea, bacon and eggs causing hardship for families who lived on one side of the new Border used to shopping a few miles away, but those shops were now in a different country!
We hear stories of mothers hiding goods in prams under smiling babies to get past Customs officers, nicknamed Water Rats, some of whom were suspected of confiscating food for their own use when they headed home for supper!
There were other practicalities; I remember as a boy going to Bundoran on holiday and my father having to get a “Bond” for the car, a little triangle sticker and we stopped at the Customs buildings to have papers checked. And that was just for families, imagine the red tape for business. This is the sort of thing which is now referred to as a hard border.
For periods of the 20th century, the Troubles saw the Border take on an extra dimension, particularly from the 1970s on, and the blowing up of many roads to thwart the IRA, or at least try to restrict them.
Of course, for much of the last century Britain and Ireland worked out a form of economic co-operation between the two jurisdiction in terms of shared economic interests, especially with currencies. For years, the Irish and British pounds enjoyed parity, and even the notes and coins bore a similarity. But when Ireland joined the European Monetary Union in 1978, and Britain stayed out of it, the exchange rate between pound and punt saw the beginning of the advantages of cross-Border shopping; depending on which side was enjoying a better economy and which side had cheaper petrol.
This went a stage further in 2002 when Ireland joined the Euro and, again, Britain kept its pound. Recent talk of a weakening pound suggests that southern shoppers could be heading in force to Enniskillen for Christmas with savings of anything between 17 per cent and 43 per cent. A 12-pack of Corona beer which costs nearly 20 Euro in the south can be picked up for 11.20 in the north, a bargain which tends to trump any rivalry between the two jurisdictions! 
So, in terms of practicalities, we’re used to dealing with all sorts of issues, though many of them will cause real difficulty.
Interestingly, in an article for Bloomberg written by Rodney Edwards, a former IRA leader sees Brexit more as an economic danger than a threat to peace.
He says, “There is little or no appetite for a return to violent conflict. Most Republicans I speak with tend to see Brexit as an economic issue rather than a democratic matter.”
He shares common ground with DUP leader, Arlene Foster who says that claims that Brexit would be a threat to peace as “scaremongering”.
Still, as the uncertainty over what exactly Brexit will look like continues, the Border question comes to the fore again, especially in the changing demographics in Northern Ireland.
It remains to be seen, however, if 21st century mothers will use their underwear to pack butter as they travel north from Clones!