Ireland’s deputy prime minister has accused “reckless” Brexit-supporting UK MPs of endangering the Northern Ireland peace process, after several suggested that the Good Friday Agreement presented a barrier to negotiations over leaving the EU.
Simon Coveney, who is also Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, tweeted on Tuesday:
Talking down Good Friday Agreement because it raises serious and genuine questions of those pursuing Brexit is not only irresponsible but reckless and potentially undermines the foundations of a fragile peace process in Northern Ireland that should never be taken for granted.
His comments came after Owen Paterson, the former Northern Ireland secretary and prominent Eurosceptic, said that “the collapse of power-sharing in Northern Ireland shows the Good Friday Agreement has outlived its use”. Mr Coveney’s tweet was also directed at Labour MP Kate Hoey and Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, who have both criticised the agreement in recent days.
Ms Hoey and Mr Hannan have both said their opposition to the 1998 agreement — which brought an end to a sectarian conflict that caused more than 3,500 mostly civilian deaths over the previous 30 years — is unrelated to their support for Brexit.
Shortly after Mr Coveney’s intervention, Mr Paterson said on Twitter that it was “disgraceful that hysterical remainers and Brussels are weaponising the Irish border issue. Brexit is emphatically not a threat to peace in Northern Ireland”. [...]
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