It may take decades to rebuild bridges

Anglo-Irish relationships, or at least the relationship between this Republic and the most enthusiastic Brexiteers, were always going to be strained by negotiations around the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, especially on the Border issue. That expectation, tragically, may have been a gross underestimation.

Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s Brexit spokesman, yesterday described Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as “despicable, low and rotten”, accusing him of using victims of paramilitary violence and the possibility or renewed terrorism to scaremonger over Brexit. Using language like that suggests the breakdown in relationships has reached Cresta Run velocity, Mr Wilson charged that the Taoiseach was scraping the bottom of a “very deep barrel of threats, deception, and rhetoric”.