Irish Examiner view: Brexit a real tragedy but it is a trap also

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at a Brexit meeting. Ms von der Leyen has said a hard Brexit is the most likely outcome.

We have, unsurprisingly but unfortunately, reached the point that by referring to Covid-19 or Brexit in an opening line quick disengagement can follow. That page-turning
may be provoked by an overload of ifs-and-buts on Covid-19 and one Brexit boy-on-the-burning-deck ultimatum after another. That litany has dulled the senses on these critical, life-defining issues. The boy who cried wolf too often is in the ha’penny place, our capacity to absorb and respond to these great challenges has been stretched, yet that is not an indulgence we can afford. As the community who ignored their wolf sentry might confirm, if any survived, hindsight is a wonderful thing. They should have listened.

That was just one thread in that community’s story but it might be worth trying to imagine how a historian in, say, 2075 might judge our behaviour today. Did we listen to the warnings and act accordingly? Did we, when it really mattered, see the wood for the trees? Did we take the best options to sustain stability and affluence? Did we allow ceremonies marking pivotal events to throw our judgment off-kilter? Did we fight to maintain good relationships, or did the old bile resurface? Will changing relationships twitch what historian Diarmaid Ferriter has described as our resentment muscles? How might 2075 hindsight judge these questions?