TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has warned EU leaders there is a ‘real risk of a return to violence in Ireland’ if there is a hard border following Brexit.
The Taoiseach was in Brussels for an EU summit when he highlighted the potential for violence at a dinner on Wednesday.
He brought a copy of that day’s Irish Times, which had featured the issue on the front page, focusing on a 1972 bomb attack at a customs office in Northern Ireland.
'No exaggeration'
Speaking to the press today, Mr Varadkar said: “I thought [the newspaper] was a useful prop to demonstrate to all of the European leaders the extent to which the concerns about the re-emergence of a hard border and the possibility of a return to violence are very real.
“This was a front page of an Irish newspaper published yesterday, interviewing family members, the daughter of somebody who was killed at a customs post on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland back in the 1970s.
“That is what used to happen when we had customs posts in Ireland.
“I just wanted to make sure that there was no sense in the room that, in any way, anybody in Ireland or in the Irish Government was in any way exaggerating the real risk of a return to violence in Ireland.”
Nine people died in the IRA bomb attack at a customs office in Newry. Co. Down.
The bomb, which exploded prematurely, claimed the lives of four customs officials and two lorry drivers, as well as three IRA members.
Transition extension
The latest summit failed to yield a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations between Britain and the EU.
The EU has scrapped a special summit planned for next month at which it was hoped the parties could sign off on a deal.
However British Prime Minister Theresa May said in her post-summit press conference that an extension to the post-Brexit transition period could be an option.
This would give both parties further time to solve the backstop issue, which aims to avoid a hard border in Ireland.
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