Hundreds of anonymous posters have appeared on lamp-posts across Northern Ireland, declaring that the Irish Sea border will never be accepted. The posters, which have proliferated since post-Brexit checks on food and plant goods from Britain began in January, reflect growing loyalist anxiety about Northern Ireland's position within the UK.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which backed Brexit as a liberating new dawn, now finds itself in a political trap of its own making. The Northern Ireland protocol, part of the Brexit deal, keeps the region aligned with EU rules while the rest of the UK diverges. Some unionists fear this will tilt Northern Ireland away from Britain and towards Ireland, while others believe the concerns are overblown and the protocol can be made to work.
Peter Shirlow, a director at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies, said: "This is not a mass mobilisation of the pro-union community against the protocol. Most are thinking: 'Can this be fixed?'" The DUP appears hamstrung, unwilling to make the new arrangements work or to lead a full-throated charge to overturn them, as its fingerprints are on the protocol.
In January, DUP leader Arlene Foster seemed reconciled to the new reality, but a U-turn followed after alarm among core voters and the EU's blunder in briefly triggering Article 16. Foster launched a campaign to scrap the arrangements and boycotted engagements with the Irish government on the protocol. However, Downing Street and the European Commission have reiterated their commitment to the protocol, leaving the DUP with three unpalatable options: all-out defiance, embracing the protocol, or muddling along.
Former DUP leader Peter Robinson warned that a choice may have to be made between scrapping the protocol and the continued operation of the Stormont assembly. Jeffrey Donaldson, the party's Westminster leader, said the protocol was hurting businesses and consumers and needed to be addressed urgently, but declined to specify what steps the DUP might take if issues are not resolved.
