The Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, sometimes referred to as the Irish border or the British–Irish border, runs for Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, 1999MFPP Working Paper No. 2, "The Creation and Consolidation of the Irish Border" (PDF) by KJ Rankin and published in association with Institute for British-Irish Studies, University College Dublin and Institute for Governance, Queen's University, Belfast (also printed as IBIS working paper no. 48) from Lough Foyle in the north-west of Ireland to Carlingford Lough in the northeast, separating the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland.
Border markings are inconspicuous, in common with many inter-state borders in the European Union. As the two states share a Common Travel Area and () Northern Ireland (the only exception within the UK and only in some respects) and the Republic of Ireland are participants in the European Single Market, the border is essentially an open one, allowing free passage of people since 1923 and of goods since 1993. There are about 270 public roads that cross the border.Irish border checks will be impossible after Brexit, says ambassador the Guardian 8 February 2017 Following the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, this border is also the frontier between the EU and a non-member country. The Brexit withdrawal agreement commits all involved parties to maintaining an open border in Ireland, so that (in many respects) the trade frontier is the Irish Sea between the two islands. This de facto division of the United Kingdom is described, especially by Unionists, as "the Irish Sea border".
Establishment
Originally intended as an internal boundary within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the border was created in 1921 under the United Kingdom Parliament's Government of Ireland Act 1920.The island of Ireland was partitioned into two distinct regions of the United Kingdom, by Order in Council on 3 May 1921 (Statutory Rules & Orders published by authority (SR&O 1921/533). Prior to this, a separatist Irish parliament had been established in Dublin, which did not recognise the Government of Ireland Act, and was actively engaged in the Irish War of Independence. The Act was intended to deliver Home Rule in Ireland, with separate parliaments for Southern Ireland (which included three of the nine counties of Ulster) and Northern Ireland. Six of the thirty-two counties of Ireland were assigned to Northern Ireland, and the rest of Ireland comprising 26 counties to Southern Ireland.
The conclusion of the Irish War of Independence, and the subsequent signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, led to the creation of the Irish Free State – a dominion established for the whole island of Ireland on 6 December 1922. The border became an international frontier after the Parliament of Northern Ireland exercised its right to opt out of the Free State on 7 December 1922. The partition of 1921 created only a provisional boundary; a Boundary Commission met in 1924–25 to fix a permanent border between the two jurisdictions "in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions". The manner in which the Boundary Commission clause was drafted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty was only explicit in its ambiguity.MFPP Working Paper No. 2, "The Creation and Consolidation of the Irish Border" by KJ Rankin and published in association with Institute for British-Irish Studies, University College Dublin and Institute for Governance, Queen's University, Belfast (also printed as IBIS working paper no. 48) Amongst politicians in Southern Ireland, there was remarkably little attention paid to the clause during the debates on the Treaty. The Republican activist Seán MacEntee was a "lone voice" in warning that the commission would involve an exercise "in transferring from the jurisdiction of the Government of Northern Ireland certain people and certain districts which that Government cannot govern; and by giving instead to Northern Ireland, certain other districts—unionist districts of Counties Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal, so that not only under this Treaty are we going to partition Ireland, not only are we going to partition Ulster, but we are going to partition even the counties of Ulster."Official report: debate on the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, 1922: 155, (22 December 1921).
The commission recommended parcels of land be transferred in both directions, primarily "in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants". The data was partially leaked to the press in 1925. Westminster urged the commissioners to suppress the rest of the document, and so no exchanges of land ultimately took place. The full report was not published until 1969- which did eventually confirm the accuracy of the earlier leak.Report of the Irish Boundary Commission, 1925 Introduced by Geoffrey J. Hand (Shannon: Irish University Press, 1969) The interim boundary was formalised in December 1925 by an inter-government agreement that was ratified by the three parliaments in London, Dublin and Belfast, without changes from the 1920 demarcation lines.Treaty (Confirmation of Amending Agreement) Act, 1925 Irish Statute Book The border agreement was then lodged with the League of Nations on 8 February 1926, making it a matter of international law.
The Irish Free State was renamed Ireland () by the 1937 constitution, and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 formally declared that the state was a republic with the official description Republic of Ireland while not changing its name, which remains Ireland.
Customs and identity checks
Customs controls were introduced on the frontier on 1 April 1923, shortly after the establishment of the Irish Free State.Denton and Fahy 1993, pp.19–20 These controls were maintained, with varying degrees of severity, until 1 January 1993, when systematic customs checks were abolished between European Community member states as part of the single market.Denton and Fahy 1993, p.iiiPaymaster-General, Sir John Cope, House of Common Debates volume 208 column 556-7W (3 June 1992): "With the creation of the single market, fiscal frontiers between member states will disappear. As from 1 January 1993, there will be no routine or systematic customs formalities and goods will move freely across internal EC frontiers." There are no longer any operational customs posts along either side of the border. Except during a brief period during World War II, it has never been necessary for Irish or British citizens to produce a passport to cross the border. However, during the 1970s troubles, security forces regularly asked travellers for identification.
Military checkpoints During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, there were British military checkpoints on main border crossings and UK security forces made the remaining crossings impassable. By about 2005, in phase with implementation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the last remaining controls were definitively removed.
Dropped proposals to reinstate border controls In October 2007, details began to emerge of a British Government plan that might end the Common Travel Area encompassing the United Kingdom and Ireland (and also the Isle of Man and Channel Islands) in 2009, possibly creating an anomalous position for Northern Ireland in the process. In a statement to Dáil Éireann, the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern assured the House that "British authorities have no plans whatsoever to introduce any controls on the land border between North and South. I want to make that clear. All they are looking at is increased cross-border cooperation, targeting illegal immigrants." This immediately raised concerns north of the border. Jim Allister, a former member of the Democratic Unionist Party and then a Member of the European Parliament, told The Times that it would be "intolerable and preposterous if citizens of the UK had to present a passport to enter another part of the UK".
In July 2008, the UK and Irish governments announced their intent to resume controls over their common border and the Common Travel Area in general. Each proposed to introduce detailed passport control over travellers from the other state, where travel is by air or sea. However, the land border will be 'lightly controlled'.Strengthening the common travel area: a consultation paper (PDF) "We are clear that we will not introduce fixed immigration controls on the land border between Northern Ireland and Ireland or on traffic from the Crown dependencies to the UK. However, mirroring activity in Ireland, the UK will consider increasing ad hoc immigration checks on vehicles in order to target non-CTA nationals on the Northern Ireland side of the land border." In a joint statement, Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary, and Dermot Ahern, the Irish Justice Minister, said: It is crucial that our two countries work closely together to ensure our borders are stronger than ever. Both governments fully recognise the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland. Both governments reaffirm that they have no plans to introduce fixed controls on either side of the Irish land border.
The Times reported that another consultation paper was to be published in the autumn of 2008 on whether people travelling between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom should be subject to further checks. One proposal is expected to suggest extending the electronic borders scheme, requiring travellers from Northern Ireland to provide their personal details in advance. This would mean residents of one part of the UK being treated differently from others when travelling within the country, something to which Unionists would object.
However, in 2011, the governments renewed the 'de facto' agreement.
The 2011 inter-government agreement 2011 marked the first public agreement between the UK and Irish governments concerning the maintenance of the Common Travel Area. Officially entitled the "Joint Statement Regarding Co-Operation on Measures to Secure the External Common Travel Area Border", it was signed in Dublin on 20 December 2011 by the UK's immigration minister, Damian Green and Ireland's Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter.CO-OPERATION ON MEASURES TO SECURE THE EXTERNAL COMMON TRAVEL AREA BORDERThe Home Office December 2012
Traffic The border is linked with 268 (often approximated as "up to 275") border crossing points. Every month approximately 177,000 lorries, 208,000 vans, and 1,850,000 cars cross the border.The Tories' cheap promises on the Irish border could lose them IndyRef2 New Statesman, 14 March 2017 Around 30,000 people cross the border daily to commute.
The Troubles