British constitutional academic meets the real world. Ireland left the Commonwealth (membership of which foisted on it by the 1922 Treaty (along with imposition of Government of Ireland Act) because of a calculated insult to the then Taoiseach. Bogdanor misses that 
misses that the North was set up to be an avowedly Unionist state, misusing religious confession as a binding force. Nothing independent Ireland did could change this. Irish citizens were treated as British citizens not out of generosity but rather
Out of an imperial mindset (Ireland was the first colony, where plantation method of settlement was first used), more dominoes couldn't fall. Particularly India. Also the Tory "Orange card" strategy ignored / abandoned unionists outside of Ulster.
So treating Irish citizens the same as UK citizens was also optics / compensation for unionists abandoned by the Imperial government to the Free State. These forces also informed the Commonwealth Immigration Act? Irish people were white, Christian & easily absorbed
Irish people were critical to post war rebuilding & creating the modern Britain. My parents came to Britain in the 40's my father building war infrastructure & then building the building of critical infrastructure, my mother as a nurse. Both ended up managerial roles.
I note that Danny Boyle whose evocation of Britain in London 2012's opening ceremony is perhaps the best global representation of modern Britain is the son of Irish emigrants. @BrigidLaffan could hardly be described as anti British. She is however, aware of asymmetry &
Bad / unintended consequences. There are already borders in the Irish Sea. The advanced social liberalism of GB is not in NI. Also with the DUP holding the lever to the trapdoor under Theresa May is this likely to happen. The @BelfastAgmt is disarming conflict, creating
Ambiguity, allowing parity of esteem, allowing a United Ireland, strengthening the UK. It is a democratic agreement which created an agreed Ireland. An Ireland with close & maybe ever closer links to the UK. Afterall we were in the EU together & usually allies there.
Yes Ireland would suffer from a no deal exit of the UK. It's called collateral damage. The fundamental issue is that the UK, after an advisory referendum, voted to leave the EU. Bogdanor knows better than me this did not bind thebUK government
Rather Theresa May under the advice of her 2 closest advisors took a hardline approach creating impossible to triangulate with the UK's economic / business model red lines. These red lines are also impossible to triangulate with the @BelfastAgmt
Which is an international agreement. A treaty. Like the one in 1922 that was signed in 1922 under threat of "immediate & terrible war" by yes the Imperial Government. But we move on. The EU is a mechanism to unite peoples create economic & social benefits.
Has Bogdanor a strategic perspective? Has he been to Alsace Lorraine, Piccardy, Flanders (Ieper) Kilmichael, Monte Cassino? The problem is not lack of creative thinking by Ireland or the EU, rather that the UK cabinet cannot agree on what it wants.
Most of the UK media are seemingly treating the whole process as the X Factor or Big Broth not something existential. Bogdanor's argument is selective, narrowly focused (like a good barrister's) but not what I would expect from a professor. Context & outcome should be the focus.
