British Prime Ministers have been pledging to respect the democratically expressed wishes of Northern Ireland since it existed. But it seems in all the melée, this is a fact that May forgot.

Yesterday in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister declared that seeing Northern Ireland “carved off … separated through a border in the Irish Sea” was something she “could never accept.”

Last month in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister declared that creating “any form of … border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK” was something she would never agree to; in fact, in her judgement, this was “something no British Prime Minister would ever agree to.”

Although I hesitate to add yet another voice to the cacophony of ‘Brexit’-related deliberations, it seems in all the noise and rancour, some particulars of history have too hastily been lost.

If you have the patience, please indulge this brief dander through a Northern Irish past…

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On the 6thDecember 1921, the British and newly formed Irish governments signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. This marked the end of the Irish War of Independence and the official recognition of the legitimacy of the Irish Free State by the British government.

Up until this point, governance on the island of Ireland had been administered according to the terms of 1920 Government of Ireland Act, which had, in effect, created two devolved administrations on the island – the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the Parliament of Southern Ireland. While still under the purview of the British State, the devolved Irish governments were granted “power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government” of their respective constituencies.

In establishing the Irish Free State, the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty superseded the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act in regard to what had been Southern Ireland. It provided Northern Ireland the chance to choose.

Schedule 11 and 12 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty allowed the Parliament of Northern Ireland one month to decide their preference. If during this month the Parliament presented an address to the British monarch requesting to opt out of the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and to retain the provisions of the terms of the 1920 Government of Ireland Act in so far as they related to Northern Ireland, the British would make it so.

On 7th December 1921, one day after the Irish Free State was established, the Parliament of Northern Ireland made such an address. It ‘prayed’ “the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State [should] no longer extend to Northern Ireland.” Six days later, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, informed the Parliament of Northern Ireland that he had received a response from King George V to confirm that it had been made so.

Northern Ireland choseto remain part of the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland gave its consent.

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At the risk of labouring a point:

In 1949, the British Parliament passed the Ireland Act. Article 1(2) of the original affirmed that,“in no event will Northern Ireland or any part thereof cease to be part of His majesty’s dominions and of the United Kingdom without the consent of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.”

In 1985, the British Prime Minister and Irish Taoiseach signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement. On behalf of the peoples they represented, the two signatories here affirmed that any change in the status of Northern Ireland would only come about with the consent of “a majority of the people of Northern Ireland.”

In 1993, the British Prime Minister and Irish Taoiseach signed the Downing Street Declarationwherein it was agreed that “it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement with the two parts respectively, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish.”

In 1998, the British Prime Minister and Irish Taoiseach signed the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. In which they again affirmed their commitment to: “recognise that it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish, accepting that this right must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of the people of Northern Ireland.”

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All of this is to say that, signing agreements that allow for the potential ‘carving off’ of Northern Ireland, or the creation of ‘any form of border’ in the Irish Sea, is something British Prime Ministers have been doing for much of the last 100 years.

Allowing the constitutional status of Northern Ireland to be contingent on the democratically expressed will of the people in the region has been the guiding principle of successive British and Irish administrations. The very idea of consent is to prevent a circumstance in which the constitutional future of this land could be contingent on the whim of a British Prime Minister, the calculation of parliamentary arithmetic or even the democratic exercise of people outside Northern Ireland’s borders.

It is, in short, premised on the radically democratic notion that people ought to be able to together choose their own collective fate.

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In 2016, 56 percent of the people of Northern Ireland voted to Remain in the EU.

In the 2017 UK General Election, 36 percent of the electorate in Northern Ireland voted for the DUP. Northern Ireland’s turnout was the lowest of any UK region at 65 percent.

36 percent of 65 percent is 23 percent.

23 percent voted to elect DUP MPs.

23 percent is not a majority.

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All this being so, in the current debate, historical precedence and legally binding commitments seem to have given way to the politically convenient, selective amnesia of an administration not listening to the people it purports to represent.