As unlikely as it may sound, Northern Ireland was forgotten in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Because the United Kingdom, of which Northern Ireland is a part, is leaving the EU, there is a risk of a hard border again being created in the EU member state of Ireland. Including border controls. That something like this brings back the old paramilitary demons is evident from the recent riots in the Northern Irish city of Londonderry/Derry in which a journalist was shot dead on April 17. Brexit raises fears of a revival of the Troubles, the wave of violence that was only contained after three decades by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The EU guarantees free movement of goods, services and people between member states. This gave Northern Irish people the opportunity to feel Irish and to live in an apparently unified country, without an internal border. But the practice remains painful. The rural border area often consists of streams whose bridges were blocked or blown up by the British army at the end of the last century. Many have not forgotten this.
