Brexit debate a novelty across Northern Ireland’s political divides

The possible return of Border posts, the raising of fresh questions about UK solidarity and potentially huge economic risks all mean the looming vote on Brexit should be capturing the attention of voters in Northern Ireland.

And it is, according to commentator Newton Emerson - in a way the country has never seen before.

“The voters certainly are exercised. In fact I’ve never known in my lifetime a subject like this, where people are spontaneously seeking to start political conversations,” says Emerson on this week’s World View podcast.

The strangeness is not lost on people. “Usually the second thing they say after ‘How are you going to vote’ is ‘Isn’t it amazing that we’re asking each other that?’ Because politics was unmentionable in polite society up until now.

“I think people are revelling in a genuinely non-sectarian, interesting ideological question.”

This political novelty has led to some groups taking what to an outsider look like unusual positions. For instance, farmers, who might be expected to favour the EU and its generous subsidies, are “generally supporting Brexit”.

Anti-EU history

Trade union leaders also support the Leave side, while Sinn Féin is calling for a Remain vote despite the party’s anti-EU history.

“People in Northern Ireland aren’t used to thinking through political positions rationally. We think with our gut here, we’re born into our political views.

“When asked to puzzle out a genuine question, we don’t really know how to do it,” says Emerson.

Also on the podcast, Irish Times London Editor Denis Staunton reports on the reliability of the narrowing polls, while Europe Correspondent Suzanne Lynch has been visiting Herefordshire and Leicester to hear a variety of views and angles on Brexit from English voters.