by Victoria Johnston 

I don’t remember the first time I was aware of the border between Fermanagh and the Republic of Ireland. This in part due to being a so called “Child of the Peace”, born the same year that the Good Friday Agreement was signed. However, I do remember the stories that I have been told throughout the years; of checkpoints, of handing over a driving licenses approaching Swalinbar and of the fear of crossing the border during the height of the violence in fear of becoming a target. The border has now established a myth like quality to my generation who have known peace their entire lives and it would be an understatement to say that as March 29th approaches we are scared of what is to come. I have read about Brexit with utter dismay across print and social media as the situation intensifies and the deadline grows ever closer. One thing I noticed was how “The Border” has been discussed but those communities who’s lives will be changed utterly come March 29th have not. They have been in affect left voiceless.

To rectify this, I set out to have some conversation with people from across Fermanagh on how they feel as the deadline approaches. The inspiration for these conversations came a number of months ago from a small group of women I met as part of the recording of “Across the Line”, a dance project filmed along the border. I ran (quite literally) into these women in the middle of the bridge where the border line between Pettigo and Tullyhummon is drawn. These women wished to remain nameless but their stories of checkpoints, smuggling butter in their jumpers past the army and one particular story of how a woman’s father smuggled a sofa from Pettigo into Tullyhummon in the dead of night using wooden planks to move it across the Termon river have stayed with me. They were worried, shaking their heads and told me of their fears for a return to a hard border and the impact this may have on their own children and grandchildren. The image of a sofa being smuggled across the border resurfaced in my head when reports appeared of Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge canoeing just minutes away from the border with Co. Donegal.

Concerns over Brexit have manifested in the communities closest to the border. Minutes from the border in Belcoo I spoke to Chris McCaffrey, one of three Sinn Féin candidates for Erne West in the upcoming council elections. He was eager to discuss Brexit with me and it became apparent that he is deeply concerned about the faith that has been placed in the British Government to negotiate a deal for Brexit as March 29th approaches. The Kinawley man who now lives in Belcoo, “had a lot of respect for Theresa May” but as negotiations fell apart and the guarantee of a back stop was removed this was respect was lost. May placed party above the national interest” shunning her responsibility as prime minster. His frustration with the handling of Brexit is clear to see as he rubs his hands against his head in complete dismay as he speaks to me. The 23-year-old is quick to point out that these talks have been handled badly due to the infighting within the Conservatives but also due to May’s confidence and supply agreement with the DUP of which McCaffrey and his party have been critical. The role of the DUP and their power within Westminster has been a major talking since the confidence and supply agreement was made following the 2017 general election. McCaffrey was fresh from canvassing, sipping on tea as he spoke conveying with dismay the fears of those from the border communities who we spoke to on the doors, they are gravely concerned due to the lack of information that has been given with only a number of weeks left until the UK withdraws from the E.U.. “The only thing that is certain if there is a no deal situation is there will be a hard border on the island of Ireland.” His fear of a hard border is visible as he reflects on his own family and in particular his younger siblings who regularly travel across the border for work. McCaffrey is worried that the border community could become “collateral damage” to a Brexit deal gone wrong.. Ultimately McCaffrey believes that if there is to be a no deal Brexit scenario that the only viable option in the national interest would be a border poll as “the people must be in control of their destiny”, he is enthusiastic and his tone changes from despair to hope as he discusses his vision of a new Ireland and he cites the recent findings on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Show which found that 86% of those surveyed would rather see Ireland reunified than a hard border.

Students were perhaps the most vocal group I spoke to and many were keen to have conversations on Brexit. I spoke to Stephen Humphreys and some of his housemates at the Ulster University Coleraine, where we are both students. Humphreys was not eligible to vote in the E.U referendum in June 2016 as he was 17 at the time but he is confident that if he had a vote he would have voted to leave. When he states this there is a murmur of agreement in the room, whilst some of his peers shake their head in disbelief. He understands the arguments for voting leave and does not think it was right for Britain, one of the richest countries in the E.U to be sending huge sums of money to the EU when it could be used to fund more important issues such as the NHS or resources for Mental Health support which he and his peers are deeply concerned about. He is critical of the EU as an economic body and says by remaining “Britain is placing a bandage on a broken leg” and if we looks around the rest of Europe “all we see is financial issues and other countries queuing up to leave the E.U.” He is frustrated with the backstop negotiations and admits that he hasn’t been following the news closely as he feels that many are now just ‘scare-mongering’. He feels there must be some form of soft trade border on the island of Ireland. He does not think that anyone who initially voted to leave did so thinking that the situation would end up this way with the possibility of a no deal scenario. However, Humphreys is deeply concerned about a potential return to violence and how the Good Friday Agreement could be affected.

This sentiment was echoed across the board with all of those I spoke to. Indeed, one of the most enduring parts of any of the conversations I have had over recent months has been the fear of violence returning to the province and as Humphreys rightly states “no one voted leave in order to regenerate violence, peace is valued in this part of the world.” One of the things I took away most from this process was how scared people were to speak to me in fear of there being a sudden change in the status of Brexit or for their views to be held under scrutiny. The climate I found across the county has been one of deep tension and as Brexit draws ever closer, this apprehension has not lifted. Fermanagh and the entirety of Northern Ireland have been kept in the dark, largely ignored and waiting for those deemed more powerful than us to decide our future post Brexit.