Special status

Could an all island special status (on the periphery of Europe) be adjudicated by the ECJ?

Soapbox on May 17, 2017, 9:37 am

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A few decades ago a young Northern Ireland student arrived at Cambridge to start an undergraduate course. As is the case with such institutions, there were events to help the newcomers get to know each other. At one such encounter, a girl on hearing him talk exclaimed: “ Oh, you have an accent”. He replied smartly: “Yes, just like you”. She immediately reassured him in a cut glass English voice that while she had no problem with the way he …

Joint authority? “What on earth have you been smoking?”

Pete Baker on March 9, 2017, 4:41 pm

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In the Irish Times Newton Emerson takes issue with two of the talking points being promoted by the SDLP and Sinn Féin – EU ‘special status’ for Northern Ireland and ‘joint authority’. From the Irish Times Northern nationalism has an alternative to Brexit – special status for the North within the EU. Nobody has a clue what this means but at least Brussels has been asked if it will consider the possibility (it has said no). Northern nationalism also has …

EU Special Status, and ignoring the Northern Ireland Assembly…

Pete Baker on November 28, 2016, 5:13 pm

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As Mick noted this morning, Micheal Martin has joined the list of party leaders calling on the Irish and British Governments to negotiate for EU special status for Northern Ireland post-Brexit. At the recent All-Island Civic Dialogue on Brexit, there was the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said in his speech that the Government needed to uphold the wishes of the Northern Ireland people and secure a special status for the region. “The overriding and principle …