AMERICAN-BRITISH playwright and novelist Bonnie Greer says Ireland owes nothing to the UK when it comes to Brexit.
Speaking during a heated debate on the topic during BBC Question Time, the critic and broadcaster also warned that the US would not do any trade deal with the UK that damaged its special relationship with Ireland, adding, “the United States is Irish”.
“Oftentimes, I hear people talking about Ireland as if this country owns Ireland,” she said.
“Ireland owes this country nothing. Ireland owes this country no concessions, it owes it no quarter, it owes it nothing.”
She added: “The United States is Irish. If anybody thinks that they’re going to get a deal through and have a trade relationship with the United States that shafts Ireland, you’ve got another thing coming. It’s not going to happen, it’s not going to happen.
“I’m from Chicago, that’s where I was born, and you know what we do on St Patrick’s Day? We dye the river green. People are very serious about Ireland in the United States – don’t mess with it, don’t make it look bad.”
If there were any more reasons to love Bonnie Greer, well I’ve just found one:
“Ireland owes this country nothing”
She clearly states what the US legislature have been saying all along. If the GFA is broken, a US/UK trade deal is not viable. #BBCQT pic.twitter.com/DjNZzxrQEL— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@OxfordDiplomat) October 3, 2019
Greer also warned the UK government needs to do more to maintain the peace process in Northern Ireland.
“The Good Friday Agreement, in spite of its rather benign name, the Good Friday Agreement is a truce,” she said.
“And it’s a truce because the United States of America and the EU sat down with this country to make it happen. We have to be much more serious about this,” Greer added.
Later in the programme, Greer hit out at what she viewed as “racially motivated” attacks on the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle.
“It is bad being a foreigner in this country right now,” she said.
“I have a friend who is Polish, she has lived here since about 2000. Her little girl was born here, she doesn’t speak Polish to her anymore on the bus or the Tube because people abuse her.”
‘She can’t speak Polish to her on the bus because people abuse her’
‘You are labelling the whole country as being racist’@Bonn1eGreer and a #bbcqt audience member clash on the treatment of ‘foreigners’ in the UK. pic.twitter.com/BXe9mLVfvg— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) October 3, 2019
“She can’t speak Polish to her daughter in public because she is maligned and hassled. That’s why she doesn’t do it, and her daughter’s losing her maternal language because her mother isn’t speaking to her anymore in public.”
