What's Behind the Violence in Northern Ireland? | Explain This

Keeping the land border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland free of any visible checkpoints is a key plank of the Brexit accord between the European Union and U.K.

An agreement, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, aims to do just that. Yet, it’s drawing bitter criticism from unionists who claim it undermines their British identity because it treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the U.K. The arrangement is also under attack from companies who say it disrupts trade.

Following Brexit, the 310-mile (499-kilometer) frontier running from near Derry in the north to Dundalk on the east coast of Ireland became the EU’s new land border with the U.K. Without special status, checks would have had to take place on the frontier because the U.K. has exited the customs union and single market.

The concern was that delays could hamper the free movement of people and goods between the two parts of Ireland, which was partitioned a century ago, and customs posts could become targets for violence. The protocol was seen as an answer.

By keeping the land border free of potentially provocative checkpoints, both sides hope to prevent a return to the era of sectarian violence, which cost more than 3,000 lives between the late 1960s and the signature of a peace accord, the Good Friday Agreement, in 1998.

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