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I've been in Belfast for couple of days - I want to address today's PMQs, but thread about borders & FoM based on 2 people. (You can mute)
A longtime friend of mine is finishing up her PhD in access to education. She initially focused strictly on integrated schools, but expanded
Though being political - Irish, catholic, working class, queer, first academic in family - she doesn't feel comfortable discussing in open
We had a few pints in the city centre where she still said it would be wise for me to tuck in my grandmother's rosary, "just in case"
Extremely worried about Brexit's impact, what came at the top of a list of hard priorities: FoM more important than (Peace III) funding
There are 2 issues overlapping here, if you've made the mistake of not following @cpmcgonagle on Ulster and Brexit: segregation and openness
Belfast still has its separation walls. Thanks to the spontaneous and isolated efforts of groups with vision, some have tumbled down.
On this trip I deliberately elected not to go see if my childhood's architectural claustrophobia was still justified. But I know it changes
For a long, long time, Ireland didn't know about diversity. It was political because of colonialism, state religion, and class struggle.
Which is already quite burden to carry; but racial, social, sexual, linguistic, cultural diversity either didn't exist or were restrictive
In Belfast specifically but other places in the region as well, walls have physically and intellectually closed generations in, impeded them
For some, Dublin is a foreign city, London a glossy mythological retreat. The rest of Europe opened up with EU membership.
NI didn't just awake from a centuries long slumber because money was funnelled in. It did through educational programs, industrial dvpt
Transportation infrastructure, Erasmus etc. All of these facilitated by EU support. My generation could see other skies, learn about them.
I'm a mixed race kid, raised by my grandmother in West Belfast. To this day I can't tell you how I escaped most of the danger it could rep.
But I did, but immigration meant that by mid 1990s, Belfast (and Derry! And Coleraine! And Donegal!) had opened up and became different.
NI, which past and present history revolves around identity in endless circles, found tiny internal door to integration thanks to EU same
My friend worries about border not just because of conflict; because of underlying issue that obstacle is meant to keep in as much as out
Second person was a teenage boy who waited next to me at a traffic light. It was my birthday and moon was full. He asked me what I was up to
We chatted up a bit down Dublin Rd. He said I had been "lucky to escape", that Belfast is a "shithole", that he would only want to leave.
Not just typical teenage rebellion. "Lucky to escape" conveys feeling of being trapped, of randomness of future prospects.
He said Belfast wasn't a place for young people, that they could never thrive there. He said he longed to "go to England", he'd never been.
A BFS to Gatwick flight is just over an hour. But England and what it means is already far away. No jobs, no education & no rights, he said
As per the first part of my thread, job and education prospects have already considerably improved from my era, but not up to EU standards
Everywhere, construction sites were popping in the city. New hotels, mostly. New official buildings. Gov agencies, diplomatic business.
Belfast seems in dire need of civil society input and support. This boy was 19, 20 at most. (A 21yo barmaid echoed this sentiment later).
Consider a Belfast kid like this one accessing to U of Ulster and being told he can enroll for a semester or two abroad on Erasmus.
His life could change. Her life could. They could also come back to the city and inject in it what it needs - and deserves - to exist.
No need to call me out on my hypocrisy: I know I have left, was educated elsewhere, and have yet to return. But I'm conscious it's necessary
What EU membership means is of course a major kick thanks to Peace programs, financial support dwindling before Brexit anyway.
But it also means being part of something different, not just the Republic or the Kingdom, always mutually exclusive. EU means perspective
For all those images of Ulster cut off from Ireland & floating away from GB - a BBC weather image many find offensive (!) - EU was inclusive
Sad conclusion is this perception is more EU Project than effective EU policy or input. But NI sees Barnier caring about border more than GB
Long story short: NI won't be cut off or closed off anymore. It deserves and needs more than isolation imposed by Tories. /end
