{"id":13898,"date":"2023-09-14T22:22:57","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T21:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/life360\/?p=13898"},"modified":"2023-10-04T01:01:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T00:01:39","slug":"tension-in-the-borderlands-how-has-brexit-caused-fear-of-a-return-to-the-violence-along-the-irish-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/life360\/tension-in-the-borderlands-how-has-brexit-caused-fear-of-a-return-to-the-violence-along-the-irish-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Tension in the Borderlands: How has Brexit caused fear of a return to the violence in Ireland?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following the Brexit referendum in 2016 there were real fears in Ireland of a return to a hard border between the North and South, something that dissident republicans warned would lead to violence. Now seven years on with a trade border instead placed in the Irish Sea, what are people’s hopes and fears along the Irish border for the future?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darragh Patterson is a young man from Portaferry, a largely catholic town about an hour southeast of Belfast. He now lives in the republic in county Donegal but regularly travels back and forth over the border to visit his family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His grandparents live in Derry City, Londonderry if you\u2019re a unionist. At Sunday lunch the conversation will often revert to his grandfather Raymond\u2019s stories of the Troubles. This was the period of deadly sectarian violence that engulfed Northern Ireland. It resulted in over three thousand deaths and almost 30 years of terror and misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Darragh, the only noticeable difference as he travels across the border is that the road signs change from miles to kilometres. However, Raymond, remembers a different time of heavily armed military checkpoints, the rumble of army helicopters, and the constant fear of being caught in the crossfire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"