Charlie Flanagan: Brexit forum likely to be first of many

Today’s all-island Brexit forum will be the first in a series of such events and will be followed by other dialogues before Brexit is triggered, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan.

He was speaking amid appeals for unionists to attend the forum, after the North’s first minister claimed it would be full of “grandstanding remoaners”.

Sinn Féin and others have called on unionists to attend the event in Dublin, reiterating that the majority of the electorate in the North voted to remain in the EU in the June referendum.

The North’s first minister, DUP leader Arlene Foster, said the event will be full of anti-Brexit voices, or “remoaners”.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said: “She should be there. Maybe she will reconsider, maybe the DUP will reconsider and participate.

“I think they have a duty to do so. If they have a point of view, they should be in Dublin articulating it.”

The North’s deputy first minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, party leader Gerry Adams, and Ms McDonald will attend today.

Ms McDonald says the event will not be a talking shop.

“This isn’t a case of North versus South, this isn’t a case of orange versus green, it is perhaps one of the biggest political challenges we will experience in our lifetimes,” she said.

British prime minister Theresa May has said she will trigger Brexit in March. But the terms of the move remain largely unknown.

Unanswered questions for Ireland relate to what will happen to the border region and Ireland’s trade with Britain, which amounts to over €1bn going back and forth every week

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will give the opening address at the forum today, which will be followed by statements from political parties and community organisations.

Mr Flanagan last night said that the forum would be, first and foremost, a “listening exercise”.

He also stressed that the conference would not be a one-off event.