challenges ni

The Continent has the potential to create some useful strategic allies With the UK having finally passed its deal with the EU, many Brexiteers, while elated, are wondering what future opportunities the UK can now pursue. And while I’m thankful that Britain can pursue these opportunities, I am worried that in all the commotion, the motherland will be ignored! And that would be an awful case of a missed opportunity. Yes, I know many people may be wondering what an impoverished

After more than four years of debate, negotiation and political turmoil, the UK and the EU have agreed a post-Brexit trade deal. Two Challenges NI contributors have been following the talks closely and have now examined the final agreement. Here, they answer five key questions about Brexit, the Trade Deal and the future of the entire continent. Ryan Hoey is a 21 year old Politics student at Queen’s University Belfast. He campaigned for Leave in the EU Referendum and stood as

In September, I was invited to take part in an episode of ‘Unfashionably Internationalist’, a podcast about political issues around the world. The series is hosted by Phil Doré, a Green Party campaigner and former national organiser of Wales for Europe. I was invited to speak about the Internal Market Bill, currently making its way through Westminster, and its consequences for Ireland. I was also joined by Neil Schofield-Hughes, a retired civil servant and current chair of Ca

It’s time to think big and introduce a Rooseveltian “New Deal” approach to the dire state of language learning in the UK for the post-Brexit and post-Covid world. Who can forget learning a language whilst at school? Such an experience proved to be polarising for students of most schools: there’s those that embrace it, going on every exchange to Madrid and Paris, and others who can barely string a sentence together about what they get up to at the weekend. For me, there’s a se

In a recent contribution, Peter Wilson conducted a post-mortem of the 2016 Brexit referendum. From this post-mortem, he suggested a number of lessons that could be learned and applied to a future border poll. Mr Wilson's proposals are very thoughtful and sincere however I feel that a response is necessary. These proposals would have big implications for the conduct of a border poll and would probably prove controversial. To that end, I will briefly revisit the Brexit referend

23 June 2016 is a date etched deep in my memory; a day when the UK opted to retreat in on itself by unilaterally hauling up the drawbridge to our European neighbours. The background to that decision was of course a monumental plebiscite on our future within the European Union. The electorate were voting on whether or not to depart from a club of which we had been members for in excess of four decades. The decision has had and will have radical consequences for the UK politica

For the first time in my life I cannot travel freely throughout the European Union. This is a sobering thought, an inherent right I have enjoyed all my life as a European Citizen no longer applies. This suspension of my right is ultimately temporary and will be eventually re-instated, yet it raises the question; What Europe will emerge from the lockdown? Thus our time in isolation allows us to reflect on ourselves but also our socio-economic structures and our increasingly co

In plunging our democracy into turmoil, de-aligning political parties, polarising divisions in our society and creating a constitutional crisis of popular sovereignty versus parliamentary sovereignty, Brexit has been a crippling distraction for the past three years. Ultimately, Brexit has stopped us from dealing with the root causes of Brexit. To make things more complex, this impasse is being resolved through a general election which is unlikely to confirm the ‘will of the p

Perhaps the most ill-informed debate surrounding Brexit is the issue of the Northern Irish border. I was recently in Coleraine for a Forum hosted by the Washington-Ireland Programme, a fantastic initiative started at the beginning of the Peace Process, which brings together students from across the island of Ireland. During one of the discussions, a young man from Dublin raised his fear that post-Brexit he will have to present his passport at the border. This concern is not u

A recent LBC poll conducted in Britain has found that more British people ‘would rather leave the EU than keep Northern Ireland in the UK.’ Now that is one of the most damning post Brexit statements that has emerged since the referendum result last June. Clearly Northern Ireland is an afterthought in this whole process. Was it mentioned properly throughout the referendum campaign? No. Were our Westminster MPs (excluding Sinn Fein due to their abstention policy) tricked into b

I grew up in Ballymena, in Northern Ireland. It’s often popularly known as the City of 7 Towers – slightly misleadingly, as we’re neither a city nor do we have 7 towers. The majority of my hometown is Protestant. It is in fact Ian Paisley’s hometown, and it’s now his Ian Paisley Jr’s constituency. We’ve been called Northern Ireland’s Bible Belt, and compared to 20th Century Mississippi, because of our treatment of the minority Catholic community there. And despite its challen

I saw this quote on Twitter the other day - ‘Fear is only temporary. Regrets last forever.’ And it rung very true to my stance on Brexit, something the author most likely wasn’t intending. In 2016 I was a rabid Remainer. Sponsored by fear and powered by ignorance, like many young Brits, I bought the talk of political and economic downfall. I believed David Cameron when he said that this vote will ‘poison our politics’ and I listened to my local MLAs sing of an economic fight