A vote would also be required in the Irish Republic.
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The European Commission says Apple owes the Irish Republic 13bn euros.
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A case was also found in the Irish Republic last week.
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Those doubts are shared by many in Britain and the Irish Republic.
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Support for independence, and a reunification with the Irish republic, is growing.
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The DUP's biggest concern is the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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A third of those exports to the Irish Republic are of food and live animals.
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THE main characteristic of the border between the Irish republic and Northern Ireland is its absence.
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Northern Ireland may soon be closer in regulatory terms to the Irish Republic than to Britain.
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Then there is the unsolved problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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It is also out of line with recent changes in the law in the Irish republic.
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Left unresolved was whether Northern Ireland would ever be reunited with the predominantly Catholic Irish Republic.
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Separatists want a vote to reunite the island, a century after the Irish Republic broke with London.
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Mrs May's Northern Irish partners, the Democratic Unionists, fret over a possible hard border with the Irish Republic.
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It has also been buoyed by the economy of the Irish Republic, which grew by 5% last year.
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But she noted that there had been a common travel area with the Irish Republic since the 1920s.
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But the rising stirred a spirit of republicanism that would soon lead to the independence of the Irish Republic.
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The happy couple were Laura Lacole, a model and outspoken atheist, and Eunan O'Kane, a footballer for the Irish republic.
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Arrangements for the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic are one of the thorniest issues of Brexit talks.
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An Irish republic was proclaimed, in defiance of British power, and demanded the loyalty of all Irish men and women.
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There are also 18 cases in Northern Ireland, the British region which shares an open border with the Irish republic.
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Pro-Brexit members of the ruling Conservative Party called for cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic on Wednesday.
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The will to remain part of a united Europe could also push Northern Ireland to unify with the Irish republic.
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DUP support depends on the solution agreed for the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
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The devolved assemblies should be consulted about legitimate constitutional issues, such as the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
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In the Irish republic, the overwhelming majority of citizens still describe themselves as Roman Catholic, though the percentage is slipping fast.
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Mrs May also reiterated her determination to avoid going back to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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The advice does not apply to the British region of Northern Ireland, which shares an open border with the Irish republic.
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The advice does not apply to the British region of Northern Ireland, which shares an open border with the Irish republic.
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Having grown up in the Irish Republic, I was well disposed to Republican Party principles like local autonomy and limited government.
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Brexit increases the chance that Scotland will claim independence and, in the longer term, that Northern Ireland will join the Irish Republic.
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Humanist weddings gained formal recognition in the Irish republic in 2012, and they now account for about six per cent of legal marriages.
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The party remains committed to breaking with Britain and uniting with the Irish Republic, though that is anathema to Northern Ireland's majority Protestants.
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However, Northern Ireland would retain closer customs links with the EU to prevent the need for a hard border with the Irish Republic.
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The status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic is one of the main stumbling blocks in the Brexit negotiations.
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In the Irish republic, haitch is considered standard; in Northern Ireland, it is used by Catholics, whereas aitch is a shibboleth that identifies Protestants.
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But it was the third issue, avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit, which was the most difficult.
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In December Theresa May promised to have no physical infrastructure or checks and controls on the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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The government said it would not introduce checks or controls on goods moving from the Irish Republic to the British province of Northern Ireland.
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In April Boots, a pharmacy chain, struck partnerships with the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the Irish Republic.
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Both sides say they are committed to keeping the border with the Irish Republic open, but finding a practical solution has proved elusive so far.
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It offers a way to avert a border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic that a Canada-type agreement on its own does not.
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The Northern Ireland executive, currently in limbo, had committed to setting a rate of 12.5 percent, matching that of the Irish Republic, in April 2018.
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Latterly he has used social media to create a grandfatherly image in the Irish Republic, with posts about his dog and his taste in cartoons.
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One hundred years ago, a group of Irish nationalists in Dublin took up arms against British rule and proclaimed the establishment of an Irish republic.
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Firstly, English Nationalists are stealing their aspirations towards a United Ireland, brought closer by remaining in the EU, of which the Irish Republic is part.
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The open border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland that underpinned the peace deal is in question, just when such doubt is least needed.
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The backstop aims to ensure there is no return to controls on the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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Both London and Dublin say they are determined not to re-create a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, complete with customs controls.
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However, Brussels and London cannot agree how to guarantee there is no return of border controls on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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Politicians in the Irish Republic are opposed to changes, which could jeopardize the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that helped to end decades of violence in Ireland.
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LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland — Crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic used to involve delays, checkpoints, bureaucratic harassment and the lurking threat of violence.
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That would avoid the need for checkpoints on its border with the Irish Republic, but there would still be customs checks between Britain and Northern Ireland.
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After the vote in the Irish Republic, Britain's minister for women and equalities, Penny Mordaunt, said the vote there gave hope to women in Northern Ireland.
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Antoinette McGuinness, 66, traveled from Leitrim in the Irish Republic and said she was among bus loads of mourners who made the trip across the border.
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Many in Ireland are concerned that Britain's exit from the EU could see the return of a hard border separating the Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic.
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On the call, a Northern Irish beef farmer said he sent meat across the Irish border to be processed in the Irish Republic before shipment to Britain.
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The latest: About 360,000 homes and businesses in the Irish Republic, 1,800 in Northern Ireland, and 4,000 homes in Wales are without power, per the Belfast Telegraph.
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A British exit from the bloc could mean that Scotland will seek independence, or that Sinn Fein will push to unite Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic.
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Many object to a backstop arrangement that the European Union insists on as a guarantee to avoid a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
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While both sides have been making positive noises, how to keep an open border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic remains one of the biggest obstacles.
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After the 1998 peace agreement many of his allies put aside the struggle to expel the British and reunify with the Irish Republic, but not Mr. Donnelly.
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But persistent disagreements, mostly over how to avoid border checks between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland, have now cast that into doubt.
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Both sides say they are committed to keeping the border with the Irish Republic open, but finding a practical way to do that has proved elusive so far.
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Starmer said a comprehensive customs union with the EU was a necessary minimum to avoid creating a hard border between British ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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We left the island with feeling of concern over the financial well-being of a relatively young Irish Republic and for the future of peace in Northern Ireland.
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The Public Prosecution Service announced in court that charges against Seamus Daly, a 45 year-old man from the Irish Republic, were being withdrawn after a preliminary hearing.
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There is little appetite for one in the Irish Republic, which is more prosperous than Northern Ireland and worries about the cost of absorbing the North's faltering economy.
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The talks, stalled since Sunday, are stuck over the issue of how to avoid a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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"If there is a hard Brexit, we would pre-manufacture in the (Irish) Republic, so we've got liquid stock that would see us through two years," Glancey said.
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Northern Ireland is considered the region of the United Kingdom most economically exposed to Brexit, due to its close trade links to the Irish Republic, an EU member.
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Mr. Heaney, who was born in Northern Ireland but lived as an adult in the Irish Republic, wrote at yet another of the British Empire's bloody fault lines.
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On one hand, the Irish republic is much less Catholic than it was in 1979 when a previous pontiff, John Paul II, toured the island and electrified its people.
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The government of the Irish Republic also expressed concern that the early election could damage the chances of resolving a political crisis in the British province of Northern Ireland.
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Q: Is it realistic for the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member the Irish Republic not to have border checks if the UK leaves the single market?
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In 1998, Britain and Ireland made the Good Friday Agreement to end 30 years of sectarian violence over whether Northern Ireland should remain British or join the Irish Republic.
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All were born before the Easter Rising, an event widely celebrated this year that sparked the explosion in patriotism that ultimately led to the founding of the Irish Republic.
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Labour, the main opposition party, is close to implosion; Scotland has revived talk of secession; and debate has resurfaced about stronger ties between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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Many Conservatives and the DUP oppose the backstop that the European Union insists on as a guarantee to avoid a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
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Anybody born in the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland, or with an Irish parent or grandparent, is entitled to an Irish passport - about six million people living in Britain.
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That would mean an Irish "backstop" deal to avoid a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, is not required, the Times reported.
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These remarks deepened worries that Britain will be forced into a so-called backstop to avoid a return of controls on the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
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In Northern Ireland, where attempts to form a new power-sharing executive have broken down again, Sinn Fein is calling for a referendum on whether to join the Irish republic.
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"Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday Agreement, including the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland," Pelosi said in a statement.
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In the worst-case scenario of Britain failing to agree any divorce deal, London warned that the single electricity market shared between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic may cease.
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The backstop ensures that, whatever the outcome of long-term trade talks between London and Brussels, goods will keep flowing, without border checks, between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
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Both sides want to preserve an open border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which will stay in the bloc, while figuring out how to handle customs issues there.
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"It will put the Good Friday agreement at risk," Bruton told CNBC on Thursday, referring to the 1998 agreement that implemented a free border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
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The progressive leanings of the Rising's leaders were evident in the language of the Proclamation of an Irish Republic read aloud by Pearse on the steps of the General Post Office.
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Since then Sinn Fein has evolved from a fringe party into the dominant Irish nationalist party in Northern Ireland and the third-largest party to the south in the Irish Republic.
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The British government has defended its plans to establish a "frictionless" border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic post-Brexit, saying that the plans are both workable and mutually beneficial.
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This would be important because of the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence over whether Northern Ireland should remain British or join the Irish Republic.
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It enjoys official status in the Irish republic, while in Northern Ireland it has always been taught in Catholic schools and is now the sole teaching medium for 5,000 children and rising.
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One of the main Brexit sticking points has been the Irish backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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It is an irony that the most likely cause of a no-deal Brexit is the continuing argument over how to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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The leaders of the rebellion which engulfed Dublin in 1916, who in 16 cases were executed, included devout Catholics who entrusted new Irish republic to the care "of the most high God".
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Ulster Bank, the Irish unit of RBS, said on Tuesday that it was aware that some transactions applied to accounts in the Irish Republic over the last five days were not appearing.
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It also asked for "constitutional stability for Northern Ireland", an apparent reference to efforts by Irish nationalists to seek a referendum on splitting from the United Kingdom and joining the Irish Republic.
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Northern Ireland is widely seen as the part of the UK most exposed to Brexit because of the prospect that checkpoints will be reinstated on its land border with the Irish Republic.
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A so-called backstop plan to avoid the reintroduction of a hard border between the Irish republic and Northern Ireland remains one of the principal obstacles to parliamentary agreement on May's deal.
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Pressure has been mounting on Northern Ireland to relax its highly restrictive abortion rules since voters in the neighboring Irish republic backed the removal of a ban last year in a landslide vote.
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In 1998, Britain and Ireland made the Good Friday agreement to end 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland over whether it should stay British or join the Irish republic to the south.
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A similar, but possibly more troubling, situation could emerge in Ireland, which has long been divided between a protestant North that's part of the UK and an independent Irish republic in the South.
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In 1998, Britain and Ireland made the Good Friday agreement to end 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland over whether it should stay British or join the Irish Republic to the south.
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Luke Rossiter, a semiprofessional player with Drogheda United soccer team in the Irish Republic, called on Twitter for her to be "locked up" and directed obscene abuse at women who had supported her.
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Brexit talks had for weeks been at an impasse over the question of how a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic could be avoided no matter the outcome of negotiations.
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The EU worries about FUTURE DIVERGENCE but accepts a promise this won't happen in Northern Ireland to ensure there is no HARD BORDER with EU member the Irish Republic, which could disrupt peace.
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Their main rivals, the Democratic Unionist Party, have accused Sinn Fein - which has long sought Northern Ireland's merger with the Irish Republic - of demanding too many concessions because they want the talks to fail.
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A case of the contagious H5N8 bird flu strain was found in southwest Wales earlier in January while the eastern English county of Lincolnshire and the Irish Republic each reported a case in December.
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The film takes the long view of the Irish Troubles, beginning with the 1916 Easter Rising, when Irish nationalists rebelling against British rule proclaimed the establishment of the Irish Republic and were mercilessly suppressed.
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Abortion rights were long opposed in Northern Ireland by religious conservatives in both the Protestant community that supports continued British rule and the Catholic community that favours union with the traditionally Catholic Irish Republic.
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Previous attempts to follow the Irish Republic in legalising abortion have been blocked by the socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), using a special veto intended to prevent discrimination towards one community over another.
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The Protocol refers to the so-called Irish backstop agreement in May's withdrawal deal she has agreed with the EU to prevent the return of border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
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Initial areas of disagreement include Britain's financial liabilities, the rights of EU citizens already living in Britain, and border arrangements between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, an EU member.
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Ireland's economy would be hit hard by a disorderly Brexit and the most contentious part of May's deal is an insurance plan aimed at preventing a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
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Speaking at the same conference, a senior official at the government agency responsible for customs checks, said disruption at the border between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland would be minimal.
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"Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday Agreement, including the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland," Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said in a statement.
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THE road-blocks and army watch-towers that once dotted the 499-kilometre (310-mile) border dividing Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic were among the most hated symbols of its long-running civil conflict.
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There is still no solution to the problem of the Irish border, no agreement on how to avoid any hard infrastructure when Northern Ireland is outside the EU and the Irish republic remains inside it.
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BELFAST (Reuters) - Damaging border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic are inevitable if Britain votes to leave the European Union this month, UK Chancellor George Osborne warned voters in the province on Monday.
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Barrie is confident that, post-independence, a deal could be struck with London avoiding trade barriers, citing the example of the open frontier between British Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which uses the euro.
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"The party has confirmed it has been speaking to ministers to find a sensible deal for the entire UK and for the Irish Republic," BBC Northern Ireland Political Correspondent Enda McClafferty said in a report.
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Those guidelines include the need for a "backstop" in a British withdrawal deal to ensure customs and regulatory compliance between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, where no one wants to restore a physical border.
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Talks on Britain's departure from the European Union have stalled over arrangements for the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish republic if a trading relationship is not agreed in time.
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"The party has confirmed it has been speaking to ministers to find a sensible deal for the entire UK and for the Irish Republic," BBC Northern Ireland Political Correspondent Enda McClafferty said in a report.
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And even still, the majority of voters in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic would need to back reunification in a public referendum — and the British government has discretion over when to call a vote.
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Johnson, May's former foreign minister, scolded the prime minister for her handling of negotiations on the future of the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, an EU member state.
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The inquiry follows harrowing reports in recent years in the Irish Republic, where priests were found to have beaten and raped children over decades in Catholic-run institutions, shattering the authority of the church in Ireland.
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DUBLIN (Reuters) - Erecting a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic over Britain's vote to leave the European Union would be a dangerous development that Europe should avoid, Italy's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
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It is a valuable concession, and one the European Union has agreed to principally in order to not inflame sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland, which would otherwise have to rebuild a border with the Irish Republic.
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Since the Irish Republic will remain inside the European Union's single market and customs union, the land border with Northern Ireland, a part of Britain, will be part of the bloc's border with the outside world.
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Trade barriers between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland "will mean psychological and political isolation," warned Bruton, who was the Irish premier from 1994 to 1997, and E.U. ambassador to the United States from 2004 to 2009.
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The border between the Irish Republic, an EU member, and the British province of Northern Ireland would be the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the EU once Britain leaves the bloc in early 2019.
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Ireland is the most pro-EU member state, and the party has dropped much of the Euroscepticism it campaigned on in 2004 when McDonald became its first member elected to the European Parliament from the Irish Republic.
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Investors are expecting only an update on progress on agreeing arrangements for the border between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland, and towards agreeing the future trading relationship between the EU and Britain.
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LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Irish backstop, an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, must be abolished to move Brexit forward.
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Wrangling over how to keep open troubled Northern Ireland's land border with the EU without creating disruptive customs barriers with the Irish Republic dogged much of the 18 months of talks before accords were struck this month.
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The Irish Republic is keen to avoid restrictions on the free movement of goods or people arising from Brexit, fearing this would undermine Northern Ireland's peace process and damage trade across its border with the British province.
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Sky said May's statement would focus on new assurances from the EU about the Irish backstop - an insurance policy to prevent the return of border controls between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
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At the outset of the Easter Rising, the rebels read a text, called the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, modeled after the Declaration of Independence — and going further than that document in its assertion of universal suffrage.
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One of the main sticking points has been disagreement over the Irish 'backstop' - an insurance policy to prevent the return of visible checks on the border between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland.
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"It's the same old theme since 1916," Ms. O'Riordan snarled, referring to the quashed rebellion that gave birth to the Irish republic, between clips of British soldiers on the streets of Northern Ireland and play-fighting children.
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CARRICKCARNON, Ireland (Reuters) - Anti-Brexit campaigners erected six mock customs checkpoints along the Northern Ireland and Irish Republic border on Saturday, in a protest over the possible impact to peace, jobs and the free movement of workers.
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Mr. Varadkar was able to extract a deal that avoided a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland by aligning the north with the European Union more closely than the rest of the United Kingdom.
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For trade between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland, such customs controls could be carried out at stations near but not on the border, possibly 10-15 kilometers from the frontier, Irwin said.
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The two largest parties in the Irish republic, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, both of whom ultimately favor a united Ireland, have expanded their political networks north of the border to position themselves for a possible "unity vote".
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The prime minister wants the EU to drop the so-called Irish backstop, which is an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland.
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The squad waiting in the Irish Republic to fire the shots balked, so the execution had to be done by another trio: Dolours herself, who said she deliberately missed, plus two others, only one of whom she named.
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Both the EU and Britain want to avoid a hard border between UK's Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic as such a move could undermine a 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict in the north.
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Yet the future of the 500km border that separates the North from the Irish Republic—and which will soon separate the United Kingdom from the European Union—has become one of the trickiest issues of the exit talks.
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The EU has also wants agreement by October on rights of EU citizens already in Britain, and on border controls between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland, before trade and other issues are discussed.
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It is neutral about the question of the Irish border, saying in common with the governments of Britain and the Irish Republic that the present arrangement should be changed only if there is evidence of demand for it.
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Voters in the once deeply Catholic Irish republic were estimated to have backed a referendum by more than two-to-one, according to two exit polls, prompting campaigners across the border to step up their demands for change.
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The issue of how the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland will fare after Britain leaves the EU is particularly sensitive given the decades of violence in the province over whether it should be part of Britain or Ireland.
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Ulster Bank, which operates separate regulated entities on both sides of the Irish border under the same name, will pay the dividend from its operations in the Irish republic, where lenders have benefited from a swift economic recovery.
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But the party he leaves is not only the dominant Irish nationalist force in the British-ruled province, but also strong enough across the border in the Irish Republic to have a chance of entering government there, too.
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Britain and the EU agreed to a transition period to avoid a "cliff edge" Brexit next year — though only after London accepted a potential solution for the border with the Irish Republic that may face stiff domestic opposition.
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DUBLIN/BELFAST, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Britain's plan for leaving the European Union is unlikely to be accomplished without significant changes to border arrangements between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said on Tuesday.
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DUBLIN, June 30 (Reuters) - Ireland's finance minister said on Thursday said it would not work to introduce a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic as a result of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.
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DUBLIN (Reuters) - The British government has a "democratic imperative" to call a referendum on whether Northern Ireland should leave the United Kingdom and unite with the Irish Republic, the province's Irish nationalist Deputy First Minister said on Friday.
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For that to happen, a majority of voters in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic would need to back a public referendum called a border poll — and the British government has discretion over when to call a vote.
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She also faces increasingly urgent demands from Brussels to come up with a customs plan to avoid a return to a hard border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which some fear could reignite sectarian violence.
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Johnson provided few details but said the so-called Irish backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, could be solved by having goods checked away from the border.
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DUBLIN (Reuters) - The return of a "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic looks inevitable if Britain leaves the European Union's single market, Ireland's European Union Commissioner, farm chief Phil Hogan, was quoted as saying on Monday.
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LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Irish backstop, an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, must be abolished to move Brexit forward.
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But Sheridan sees a threat to his life's work, his family's future and even the settlement that ended years of violence in British-ruled Northern Ireland should checkpoints reappear after Brexit on the "invisible" frontier with the Irish Republic.
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Adams said last month that he intended to lead the party into the next parliamentary election in the Irish republic where suspicion of Sinn Fein's role in the Northern Ireland troubles still runs deep among the main political parties.
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Reviled by many as the face of the IRA during its campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, Adams reinvented himself as a peacemaker in the troubled region and then as a populist opposition parliamentarian in the Irish Republic.
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Ireland and the rest of the EU say there is no credible alternative to the backstop, which would prevent customs and other checks having to be conducted after Brexit on the border between the Irish republic and Northern Ireland.
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McDonald is untainted by allegations of affiliations to the IRA, allowing Sinn Fein to win more votes particularly south of the border in the Irish Republic, where Adams' toxic past has long been an impediment to Sinn Fein's success.
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The key outstanding question for Brexit negotiations is how to solve the Irish border question in a withdrawal from the EU. Under the 1998 peace agreement, the border between the Irish Republic and British-ruled Northern Ireland is open.
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Storm Ali is the first storm to be named by the UK and Irish meteorological offices this season, arriving in the Irish republic early Wednesday before moving northeast to Northern Ireland, Scotland, northern England and parts of north Wales.
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As the possibility grows of Britain's crashing out with no deal, so, too, does the likelihood of the reimposition of a hard border with the Irish Republic that many people see as a dire threat to peace and stability.
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Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin reiterated on Saturday that his party would not go into coalition with Fine Gael or Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republic Army (IRA) whom he likened this week to a "mafia organization".
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Both the EU and Britain want to avoid a so-called hard border between UK's Northern Ireland and the EU's Irish Republic because such a border could undermine a 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict in the north.
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In a speech to politicians and business leaders in Belfast, May sought to turn the focus onto the EU and the fate of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, one of the main stumbling blocks in the negotiations.
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But at the last minute, Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose ten MPs Mrs May needs for her ruling majority, stepped in to block a concession aimed at averting a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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In the early 1920s the politically powerful Catholic Church backed Irish independence, dismantling the Monto during the infancy of the Irish Republic in the early 1920s — and with it, dismantling the only economy in which women had had any power.
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One of the issues that prevented May getting a divorce deal through parliament was the Irish "backstop" - an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland.
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Northern Ireland is the only part of Britain or Ireland with such a restrictive regime, after voters in the Irish republic backed the removal of a ban in a landslide May vote that sparked calls for change in the North.
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That was also the only way to avoid the reimposition of controls at the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit, a major concern for EU leaders who hold a summit on June 28-29.
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O'Neill's comments come as British Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to launch the Brexit process, which is expected to have major implications for the economy of Northern Ireland which has close trade links to the Irish Republic, an EU member.
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BERLIN (Reuters) - Negotiations on Britain's departure from the European Union must not undermine peace in Northern Ireland and there can be no "hard border" between the British province and the Irish Republic, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Thursday.
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British officials are also uneasy about the EU writing into the draft that London will maintain regulations in Northern Ireland to avoid diverging from EU rules in the Irish Republic and so avoid a "hard border" that could disrupt the peace.
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At 20, he left his job as a barman to help defend fellow Catholics from what they saw as a hostile British state, and to fight for Northern Ireland to split from the United Kingdom and unite with the Irish Republic.
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London questions the need for any border between the Irish Republic and the British province but EU negotiators fear Britain could exploit a back door into its single market for goods while getting rid of EU rules and customs regulations.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Neither the United Kingdom nor the European Union want to enter into a backstop agreement to avoid a return of border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, British Prime Minister Theresa May's Europe adviser said on Monday.
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Britain has yet to start serious trade talks with the EU ahead of its March 2019 departure, as the process is currently bogged down in disagreements over border arrangements between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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Poland's Jacek Czaputowicz said earlier on Monday he had proposed limiting the backstop - an insurance policy to avoid the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland - to five years in order to break the Brexit deadlock.
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Ireland and the rest of the EU say there is no credible alternative to the backstop, which would prevent customs and other checks having to be conducted after Brexit on the border between the Irish Republic and British-ruled Northern Ireland.
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" And that's why some in her party tried to overthrow her... Brexit deadlocked The stumbling block is the so-called "insurance deal" or backstop, to keep the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic open, or "frictionless for trade.
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Ireland made history in 2015 as the first country to legalize gay marriage by a popular vote, with 62 percent voting in a referendum in favor of gay marriage in the Irish Republic that was once dominated by the Catholic Church.
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The UK and Irish government and negotiators in Brussels all want to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland, which as part of the UK would be outside the EU after Brexit, and the Irish Republic, which will remain a member.
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Under the terms of Britain's withdrawal agreement with the European Union, the North has a unique status — part of Britain's customs territory but adhering to European Union regulations — which allows it to have no hard border with the Irish Republic.
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He likened the idea of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, after Brexit, to his border wall with Mexico, but then agreed with Ireland's leader, Leo Varadkar, that there should be no wall dividing north and south.
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Irish premier Leo Varadkar said London agreed on Monday that Northern Ireland would remain in "regulatory alignment" with the EU, and hence the Irish Republic, to ensure there was no "hard border" with police and customs checks that could disrupt peace.
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Mr. Adams's retirement after 21970 years as party leader is seen as an opportunity for Sinn Fein, until recently the political wing of the banned Provisional Irish Republic Army, to reposition itself closer to the political mainstream in southern Ireland.
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The European Union and Ireland want guarantees there will be no physical structures delimiting the land border between the Irish republic and the British province of Northern Ireland after Britain leaves the EU, if negotiations fail to regulate the issue.
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I saw "Continuity" a day or two after this newspaper was citing the risk of inflamed tensions along the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in light of the looming specter of Britain's exit from the European Union.
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The issue of preventing a hard border between the United Kingdom's Northern Ireland and EU-member the Irish Republic is one of the main outstanding sticking points in negotiations between London and Brussels ahead of the British withdrawal on March 29.
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Reaffirming a message of U.S. solidarity with Ireland first delivered in a speech on Monday in London, Pelosi said it was vital to keep a "seamless border" between the Irish Republic and British-ruled Northern Ireland after the UK exits the European Union.
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Negotiators from both sides have been locked in talks this week to overcome differences on the biggest outstanding hurdle to a deal - how to keep the UK frontier with the Irish republic free of border checks after Britain leaves the EU in March.
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DUBLIN/BELFAST (Reuters) - A woman died on Wednesday when high winds blew her caravan off a cliff in the Irish Republic and a man died in Northern Ireland as Storm Ali grounded flights and left over 200,000 people across the island without electricity.
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Some 126,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in the Irish Republic due to gale force winds that reached over 140 kilometers per hour, down from an earlier peak of 186,000, while power cuts hit another 90,000 homes north of the border.
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Both Johnson and his rival, foreign minister Jeremy Hunt, told a debate on Monday they were not willing to accept the so-called Irish backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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"The most important thing we've got to do is to get Brexit done, and I think the person that is most important to getting Brexit done - it's building a relationship with the Taoiseach, the leader of the Irish republic," Harper told Reuters.
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WARRENPOINT, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - Mussel fisherman Brian MacDonald shares many of the concerns about Britain's divorce from the European Union that are felt by tens of thousands of people who earn a living along the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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The EU insists that there can be no hard border between the British province and the Irish Republic, with Northern Ireland remaining in the bloc's customs union or effectively establishing a border in the Irish Sea if no alternative deal is reached.
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The Irish backstop - an insurance policy to avoid the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland - is the most contentious element of British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal which was overwhelmingly rejected by parliament last week.
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As Britain prepared to leave the European Union, Mr. Varadkar successfully extracted a deal that avoided a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland — by aligning the north with the Continent more closely than the rest of the United Kingdom.
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Even pro-British lawmaker Ian Paisley Jr., the son of the firebrand preacher-politician of the same name who for decades cried "No Surrender!" to Catholic nationalists' desire for closer ties with the Irish Republic, advised constituents to apply for a second passport.
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Mr. Varadkar campaigned on his government's skillful handling of Brexit, in securing a deal with Prime Minister Boris Johnson that avoided a hard border with physical checks between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, and on presiding over a period of economic growth.
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Junker and May spoke after government sources in Dublin said Britain had agreed to keep Northern Ireland "aligned" to EU regulations to avoid a "hard border" with the Irish Republic - news that had sent the pound higher on hopes of rapid trade talks.
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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Failure to reach a backstop deal for the border between the Irish Republic and British-ruled Northern Ireland by June could put the UK's final withdrawal agreement from the European Union at risk, Ireland's deputy prime minister said on Monday.
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LONDON (Reuters) - No technology solution exists or can alone solve the issue of preventing a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Britain leaves the EU, the British official who was in charge of Brexit border preparations said on Wednesday.
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They probed each other's positions on the three main issues of the first phase of negotiations: the rights of EU citizens living in Britain (and vice versa); Britain's outstanding financial obligations to the EU; and the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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The New IRA is far smaller than the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which disarmed after the peace accord mostly ended three decades of conflict between mainly Protestant supporters of continued British rule of the province and mainly Catholic proponents of unification with the Irish Republic.
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Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said London agreed on Monday that Northern Ireland, a British province, would remain in "regulatory alignment" with the EU, and hence the Irish Republic, to ensure there was no "hard border" with police and customs checks that could disrupt peace.
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Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday asked the British government to detail what specific EU rules it would retain in Northern Ireland to ensure regulatory equivalence between the region and the Irish Republic and thus avoid the need for a hard border.
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In the 1970s, when contraceptives were still banned in the Irish republic, a family-planning campaigner went south with 40,000 condoms in his station wagon; his insistence that they were all "for personal use" was met with good-humoured banter by an Irish police patrol.
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Like many along the 500 km (310 mile) frontier that remains one of the most intractable issues in Britain's negotiations to leave the European Union, the Crockett's farm lies in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, straddling the counties of Donegal and Londonderry.
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Carberry said that as a nation she thinks the Irish republic has "moved beyond" violence, adding that the values outlined in the Irish proclamation — dignity, rights for all, equality for men and women — should still be the values of the Irish Defense Forces today.
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Political leaders in Northern Ireland have warned that Britain's decision to leave the European Union and the possibility of infrastructure on the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic for the first time since 1998 could help dissident groups to recruit new members.
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Adams, the party's president for more than 30 years and its leader in the Irish Republic, where it is a growing force, has also said he is preparing to make way, as the former political wing of the IRA broadens its appeal to voters.
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In Mr Kenny's cautious words, this outcome could cause "serious difficulty" for Northern Ireland, whose peace deal is predicated on the United Kingdom and the Irish republic (and thus both bits of Ireland) being in the union and working together to get European benefits.
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It has been a tense week for the Irish Republic, with main opposition party Fianna Fail on Friday submitting a motion of no-confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald of leading party Finn Gail, whose minority government relies on Fianna Fail for support.
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With the Irish Republic to have the only EU land border with Britain after Brexit, Varadkar repeated a warning that failure to achieve genuine progress on the customs issue by next month would cast doubt on sealing an overall withdrawal agreement by an October deadline.
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Less than six months before Britain leaves the bloc negotiators from both sides are trying to overcome the biggest hurdle to a deal - how to keep the UK frontier with the Irish Republic free of border checks after Britain leaves the EU in March.
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British-ruled Northern Ireland is left as the only part of Britain or Ireland with such a restrictive regime, after voters in the Irish republic backed the removal of a ban in a landslide vote last month that sparked calls for change in the North.
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Mr. Adams will almost certainly be succeeded by someone with no direct involvement in the decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, a prospect that would make Sinn Fein a more palatable coalition partner in the Irish Republic, where it has never been in power.
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LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - There is no technology solution that alone can solve the issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in a no-deal Brexit scenario, the British official who was in charge of Brexit border preparations said on Wednesday.
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DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Wednesday he still expected Britain to honour the pact it made with the European Union in December, which was designed to prevent a hard border developing between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit.
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Just over one third of people surveyed in the Irish Republic said they would like to see a united Ireland in "the short to medium term", a cross-border opinion poll carried out for the British and Irish state broadcasters found in November 2015.
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The Irish backstop - an insurance policy to avoid the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland - is the most contentious element of British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal which was overwhelmingly rejected by members of parliament last week.
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Sinn Fein, whose members were banned from speaking on Irish media until the mid-1990s before the end of Northern Ireland's three decades of conflict, is part of a power-sharing government in the British-run province, which it ultimately wants to reunite with the Irish Republic.
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Mr Barnier, who has a mandate approved by European governments, is focusing on the terms of the Article 216 divorce: specifically, the rights of EU citizens in Britain and vice versa, how to avoid a border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, and Britain's exit bill.
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The British prime minister's deal wraps up three issues in the first phase of negotiations under Article 50, which governs Brexit: determining the rights of EU citizens in Britain; settling the British exit bill; and avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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That is the logical consequence of the deal that has been reached over the Irish border; if Northern Ireland stays aligned both with the regulations prevailing in the Irish republic and in the rest of Britain, the implication is that Britain stays in the single market.
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You described vividly the hurdles that the traffic of people and goods would face if a hard border were to be established between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as a consequence of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union ("The border that isn't—yet", July 15th).
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The June 23 Brexit vote has raised a number of questions for Northern Ireland, from its impact on 18 years of peace, to billions of pounds of EU funding and the open border with the Irish Republic, which will be Britain's only land frontier with the bloc.
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On the Irish border, the British government said it would not introduce any new checks or controls on goods moving from the Irish Republic to the British province of Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, stressing the plan was temporary and unilateral.
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Johnson has said he would prefer to the leave the EU with a deal but has rejected the Irish backstop — an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland — which the EU says is key to any agreement.
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"She added: "Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday Agreement, including the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, especially now, as the first generation born into the hope of Good Friday 21 years ago comes into adulthood.
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Sunday's murder was condemned by politicians on all sides, some of whom have expressed concern over the implications for the peace process from Britain's vote to leave the European Union, particularly if it leads to any hardening of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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Yet the incoming prime minister believes he can, in such short order, secure meaningful changes to Theresa May's deal, including in the "backstop," an insurance policy to preserve an open border between the Irish Republic (remains in the European Union) and Northern Ireland (which leaves with Brexit).
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"Because of Boris Johnson's majority, the DUP are going to have now to refocus on the North, on relationships with ourselves and other parties and I think that assists us in the negotiations," Eoin O Broin, a senior Sinn Fein lawmaker in the Irish republic, told RTE.
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McGuinness remains a figure of hate for many pro-British Protestants in Northern Ireland for his senior role in the IRA, which killed over 1,600 people in three decades of violence aimed at breaking Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and uniting it with the Irish Republic.
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"I've said it before and I'll say it again, we must ensure that nothing happens in the Brexit discussions that imperils the Good Friday accord, including, but not limited to, the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland," Pelosi told a special joint sitting of Ireland's parliament.
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"I think that the alternative to that will be having no deal," May told BBC TV. The main sticking point to agreeing a deal between Britain and the EU is the issue of ensuring there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit.
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Whenever he decides to step down, he will almost certainly hand over to a successor with no direct involvement in the decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, say political analysts, making Sinn Fein a more palatable coalition partner in the Irish Republic where it has never been in power.
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May's plans will need the support of Northern Ireland's DUP, which is expected to use its 10 votes to back her in exchange for more funding to the province, policies geared toward boosting its economy and assurances that Brexit will not cut it off from the neighboring Irish Republic.
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The film begins in October 2006, at St. Andrews in Scotland, where Britain, the Irish Republic and Northern Irish parties — including the Democratic Unionist Party (the D.U.P.) and Sinn Fein — are negotiating what was called the St. Andrews Agreement, a power-sharing pact between Unionists and Irish republicans.
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Labour says it would back a deal with a permanent customs union with the EU — which would resolve the problem of managing the land border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic — as well as a close relationship with its single market and greater protections for workers and consumers.
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One of the main areas of contention between Britain and the EU over the terms of Brexit has been the Irish backstop - an insurance policy to provisionally keep Britain in a customs union with the EU and prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
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In a speech due to be delivered in Belfast on Friday morning, May will accept the need to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic once Britain leaves the bloc, but will dismiss the EU's current plan as "unworkable," according to extracts released by her office.
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Britain's future customs arrangements after it leaves the bloc in March next year is fast becoming the main flashpoint in the Brexit debate, important because some fear it could usher in a return to a hard border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, possibly reigniting sectarian violence.
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Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Simon Byrne, appointed last month after a career in English policing, raised concerns about how he was supposed to police the almost 300 border crossing with the Irish republic if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal in just over three months.
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The British and Irish prime ministers remain wide apart on the potential for technological solutions that the U.K. side says will obviate the need for physical customs checks and border infrastructure on the dividing line between the Irish republic and the separate nation of Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom.
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It proposed the establishment of special economic zones away from but close to the border, suggesting areas 30 to 50 km within each side between the Northern Irish county of Derry and Donegal in the Irish Republic and further east between the town of Newry to the north and Dundalk in the south.
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The commission's negotiating mandate will include agreeing on the rights of 3m EU citizens to stay in Britain and 1m Britons to stay in EU countries; finding some way to avert a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic; and settling the exit bill that it claims Britain must pay.
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This should cover trade and how to prevent a return of controls on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which will become Britain's only land border with the EU. These are the main areas of disagreement which have caused May's government to step up preparations for leaving without any deal.
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Citing unnamed government sources, the BBC said the plans will suggest creating "customs clearance zones" in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in a bid to get round the backstop issue which is seen as the main sticking point to a Brexit deal being approved by a majority of the U.K. Parliament.
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The two centrist parties that between them have traditionally won the vast majority of the combined vote share, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, have both lost major electoral ground to Sinn Fein, a largely left of center party that has long prioritized reunification of the Irish Republic with the neighboring U.K. nation of Northern Ireland.
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An agreement should cover trade and how to prevent a return of controls on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which will become Britain's only land border with the EU. These are the main areas of disagreement which have caused May's government to step up preparations for leaving without any deal.
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This should cover trade and how to prevent a return of controls on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which will become the United Kingdom's only land border with the EU. These are the main areas of disagreement which have caused May's government to step up preparations for leaving without any deal.
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Scots voted in 2014 to stay in the UK. In Northern Ireland, supporters of a united Ireland won more seats than those in the province who want to remain part of the United Kingdom for the first time since the 1921 partition which divided the British north from the Irish Republic in the south.
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A major obstacle facing Britain as it negotiates its exit from the EU, including the single market and customs union, is future arrangements for the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. But Brexit also raises problems for Gibraltar, whose economy relies on workers crossing the border with Spain.
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The main reason is that Theresa May, Britain's prime minister, has rejected a key part of the EU's draft withdrawal agreement, a planned backstop to ensure that, no matter what happens to a future trade deal between Britain and the EU, there is no hard border with physical customs controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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Theresa May had originally hoped to agree on a deal at a lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, on December 4th, but it fell apart when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose support the prime minister needs for her parliamentary majority, objected to the provisions for avoiding a border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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A major obstacle facing Britain as it negotiates its exit from the EU, including the single market and customs union, is future arrangements for the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. But Brexit also raises problems for Gibraltar, whose economy relies on workers crossing the border with Spain.
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But Varadkar said there would be no withdrawal agreement or subsequent trade agreement with Britain if it did not accept the backstop - an insurance policy that would provisionally keep Britain in a customs union with the EU, pending a better solution, to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
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This would have averted a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic by keeping the United Kingdom as a whole in a customs union with the EU. Mr Johnson's alternative plan had envisioned keeping Northern Ireland within parts of the EU's regulatory regime, eg, for agri-food and manufactured goods, but within a separate British customs zone.
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The agreement will have to cover trade and how to prevent a return of border controls on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which will become Britain's only land border with the EU. These are the main areas of disagreement which have caused May's government to step up preparations for leaving without any deal.
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" "However, this will become null and void if based only on the EU goal of ensuring Northern Ireland remains in a common regulatory and customs areas inside the EU. Equally we are unconvinced by arguments which suggest that a technological border in the Irish Sea is more deliverable than on the land border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
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And to guarantee that there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, she has also accepted that there must be a "backstop" solution that keeps Britain in a customs union and in close regulatory alignment with the EU for some years, until another way is found of avoiding any infrastructure, customs checks or associated controls on the border.
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In the aftermath of the Brexit shock the Derry and Strabane Council and Donegal County Council commissioned a study that produced two main proposals: a cross-border free-trade zone joining Derry in Northern Ireland with Letterkenny in the Irish Republic and bespoke travel arrangements equivalent to the Nordic Passport Union or local border traffic zones, similar to the Poland-Russia border.
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The border issue separating Ireland from the U.K.'s Northern Irish province has emerged as one of the most intractable flashpoints of the Brexit debate: after 20 years of open borders and trade following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended the sectarian conflict between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, the U.K. wants to take Northern Ireland out of the EU customs union.
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The arrangements for the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic remains one of the thorniest issues of Brexit and has repeatedly threatened to derail talks with the EU. One financial lawyer said the transition deal simply pushes forward the "cliff edge" for financial firms to the end of 2020, unless backed by other measures to underpin insurance and derivatives contracts that go out several years.
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Foremost among them are Britain's exit bill, which Brussels insists should include British contributions to the 2014 to 2020 budget that it already agreed to, even after it formally leaves; how to manage a new E.U. border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic; and how to define and adjudicate the rights of the some 3.2 million European Union citizens living in Britain (and the approximately 1.2 million Britons living in the bloc) after Brexit.
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The pound had jumped on Thursday on reports that Britain and the European Union had reached agreement on a divorce bill and were close to a deal on the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. But although Ireland said on Friday a breakthrough on the future of the Irish border after Brexit remained "doable" before a key EU summit in two weeks' time, the negotiating teams are "not there yet", the Irish foreign minister said.
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The head of the Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May's government said on Saturday she would prefer no Brexit deal to a bad deal, describing current plans as amounting to "the annexation of Northern Ireland" by the EU. British and European Union negotiators this month have accelerated the push for a Brexit deal but talks remain snagged on the issue of the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Irish Republic, an EU member state.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Wednesday it was pushing forward with plans to find alternative arrangements to eliminate the need for an Irish "backstop" in Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, part of a bid to break the impasse weeks before Britain exits the EU. Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29 but no withdrawal deal is in place after MPs rejected May's treaty in part due to the backstop, an insurance policy to stop the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit.
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