Sir, – Bill Jermyn misses the point regarding the issue of a hard border on the island of Ireland (Letters, February 8th). In 2016, the people of Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union.
Accordingly, there was a democratic responsibility on the NI political parties to respect that decision and support a withdrawal agreement that best reflected the people’s wish to maintain close links with the EU and the fact that 60 per cent of NI exports and 40 per cent of private sector jobs required seamless access to the EU Single Market.
Instead, the DUP ignored the NI electorate and chose to continue their relationship with the hard Brexiteers and Boris Johnson to the extent that they voted against Theresa May’s withdrawal deal and, indeed, other solutions presented in the House of Commons in 2019, all of which would have solved the Border issue.
It is a bit rich now for the DUP to walk out of the powersharing executive because they failed to understand that “getting Brexit done” really meant keeping Boris Johnson in Downing Street. – Yours, etc,
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MARTIN McDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.