The careful choreography of a thaw in British-Irish relations has been hard to miss: pints of Guinness in Chequers, chummy photographs at Lansdowne Road and swapped England, Ireland and Donegal jerseys aplenty.
Countless columns have expanded on Keir Starmer’s affection for Ireland and the greening of his backroom team, while officials have earnestly entreated nuggets about the gelling of relationships between Taoiseach Simon Harris and the British prime minister — by all accounts, a genuine one, with the two said to be trading good-natured jibes during the England versus Republic of Ireland soccer match on Saturday.
However, beneath the cladding of a recast relationship, the work of jump-starting British-Irish affairs is complex and delicate as the two sides try to find common ground after almost a decade of corrosion. Part of it, says one person involved in bilateral talks, is about trying to counteract a “drift” between the two systems which has been under way for years. When Britain was part of the EU, official-to-official contact on intricate and boring European policies was a daily occurrence, while during the Brexit wars ministerial and intergovernmental exchanges organised under the auspices of the Belfast Agreement structures stagnated.
Strategists in Dublin say that an effort to reknit systems will focus on more prosaic work around areas of common interest. There is much enthusiasm over the commitment to annual summits between Taoiseach and prime minister, alongside as many Cabinet ministers as can be mustered. This, say sources, is a non-Brexit, non-Northern Ireland channel that can be worked assiduously. But before the politicians gather, the hope is that networks between officials can be reanimated on the topics chosen: security; energy and climate; culture, education and people; and trade and the economy.
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The big, thorny topics cannot be ignored, of course. The question of Britain’s future relationship with the EU and Northern Ireland will loom large and, notwithstanding photo opportunities or diligent efforts to encourage official co-operation, will define the success or otherwise of the resetting project in a much more meaningful way.
On the former, much has been made of the Republic’s capacity to be an interlocutor as relations between London and Brussels progress. There is, for the first time in years, at least a presumption of good faith on both sides but the fine detail of this is where it will be tricky. How can a closer relationship be forged that mends economic ties but stops short of Britain rejoining the customs union, while also operating within the confines of Britain’s post-2016 political culture? How does the unrest in European politics, with a new commission bedding itself in against a backdrop of turmoil in France and Germany, play into this? Merging the ambition with the realpolitik will not be easy.
On the North, Starmer’s genuine willingness to look again at the Legacy Act question is appreciated, but all parties know the Republic will not drop its legal case under the European Convention on Human Rights on hope value alone. Exactly what Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn proposes, and how it goes down in Dublin, will be a key juncture. A Stormont Executive with staying power would also be helpful to both sides.
All parties say the glad-handing shows a genuine commitment to maintaining good relations — but that alone gets you only so far.
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