Bertie Ahern: Unionists ‘victims of double and trebling dealing’ on Brexit

Unionists have been the "victims of double and trebling dealing" by the British Government in relation to Brexit, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has stated.

Mr Ahern said he had “some sympathy” for unionists who have objected to the withdrawal agreement bill negotiated by the UK and the EU which will see a border down the Irish Sea.

This despite the fact that British prime minister Boris Johnson had promised there would never be customs barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Speaking at the launch of Cormac Moore’s book The Birth of the Border, Mr Ahern said some British prime ministers had a long history of duplicitous behaviour in relation to Ireland “and they are still at it”.

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“One thing I learned from all my negotiations is that you have to be fair and frank,” he added.

However, he also stated that the deal as envisaged for Northern Ireland will be a good one for its citizens as they will effectively be in both the EU and the UK.

History grinds

Mr Ahern suggested that Irish history should be compulsory on the syllabus in Britain.

He criticised the “sheer ignorance of Irish history and Irish political affairs” as expressed by some Brexiteers adding: “There are a few leading figures in the debate in Westminster who could benefit from a few grinds in Irish history.”

He commended the Minister for Education Joe McHugh for making history compulsory for secondary students in first to third years despite being advised by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) that this would undermine the reformed junior cycle programme.

The NCAA’s approach was “short-sighted and quite frankly ill-considered”, Mr Ahern believed.

“The Minister for Education deserves all the plaudits he is getting for overruling this stupid decision. It is important that our young people learn about the suffering, loss and sacrifices that have taken place to give this country its nationhood and that we all understand past mistakes, so we can build a peaceful future for everyone.”

He believed demands for a border poll were “premature and not helpful” and such a poll, if it was based on a sectarian head count, would only repeat the mistakes of 100 years ago when David Lloyd-George’s government did a sectarian head count in partitioning the island.

‘Zero respect’

“All of us now have a responsibility to ensure that the isolation, exclusion and alienation felt by nationalists will never, ever be projected onto unionists,” he said.

“The only time we should have a Border poll in my view, and I will argue this for the rest of my life, is when we’re in a situation that the nationalists and republicans and a sizeable amount of unionists/loyalists are in favour on the basis of consent.”

The blame for partition, Mr Ahern suggested, should be squarely laid at David Lloyd-George’s government which passed the Government of Ireland Act (1920) that set up two parliaments in Ireland.

"Lloyd George had a firm attachment to Empire. He was a Welshman who, in reality, had very little sympathy for the self-determination or sovereign aspirations of small nations. He had zero respect for Irish nationalism and zero minus one respect for Irish republicanism. Lloyd George had been one of the first British politicians to put partition on the political agenda and he did so in an act of political bad faith.

“Lloyd George was not a murdering so and so in the manner of Cromwell, nevertheless, Lloyd George’s cynical approach to negotiation and to dealing with Ireland has been at the root cause of much pain and suffering.

“Lloyd George’s style was deceitful and he was quite prepared to play nationalists and unionists off against each other.”