Northern Ireland has been without government for more than two years. Brexit threatens to make matters worse
autumn, Northern Ireland’s second city was eagerly awaiting the opening of a graduate medical school. It was billed as the centrepiece of an urban renewal plan, which over time would improve health care as more doctors stayed in the region. Then came the bad news: the startup was to be postponed until at least the end of 2020. Because of a political impasse that has seen Northern Ireland’s government suspended for more than two years, there was no local minister to sign off the new faculty.
Now Brexit, particularly of the no-deal variety, threatens to make matters worse. Households, businesses and students in Derry rely on seamless transport over the adjacent border with the Irish county of Donegal. About 15,000 people in the vicinity cross every day to work or study. The civil service has warned that a no-deal Brexit could cost 40,000 jobs in Northern Ireland. With about 5% of Derry’s population drawing the dole, its unemployment rate is already twice the regional average.
In many ways, all-Ireland casts of mind are already established. The county of Donegal and the council encompassing Derry and nearby Strabane work in lockstep in areas ranging from libraries to sport. They go on joint missions to America to tout for investment. For the tourist business, Derry’s historic walls and Donegal’s gorgeous beaches are a single product.
Some recent initiatives give a hint of what could be possible if the logic of geography were followed through. Altnagelvin, Derry’s main hospital, has a newish radiotherapy unit that treats people from either side of the border. That saves Northern Irish patients a two-hour ride to Belfast, and those in Donegal a much longer hike to Galway or Dublin.
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