This is a Northern Irish paradox: the fiercest supporters of Brexit are also those who fear more the long-term consequences. The pro-Brexit conservatives believe they have been betrayed, in the final stretch, by the head of the British government, Boris Johnson, with the maintenance of Northern Ireland in a customs union with the European Union. They now fear that the decision to leave the EU will favor the Republican plan to reunite the two Irish people.
In a Northern Ireland which had voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, this paradox means that no one in Belfast really had a heart to celebrate on Friday 31 January. At 11 pm, in front of the closed gates of the Stormont Assembly, only around fifty "brexiters" claimed the countdown for the last ten seconds before leaving the EU.
The failure of the rally called by Parliamentarian Jim Wells of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) did not prevent the cries of joy, the drum rolls and the emotion at the call of the bagpipes . " Freedom ! Freedom ! Freedom ! " yelled the protesters when the twelfth stroke of midnight, continental time, sounded.
"It can go wrong"
While waiting for the fateful hour, the speakers did not go with a dead hand. After a Protestant pastor thanked God for Brexit and called on the Almighty to be careful never to allow rapprochement with the Republic of Ireland, a man rejoiced at "The end of forty-seven years of slavery" within community Europe, which the country had joined in 1973. While all claimed to be anti-EU for decades, a septuagenarian recalled that his personal anti-Europeanism dated downright from childhood when, during the second world war , the country of Churchill was threatened "By their German and European bombs"…
Jamie Bryson came to greet the gathering as a connoisseur. Union activist, site editor Unionist Voice, presented in the Northern Irish media as a voice for opponents of power sharing with Republicans and paramilitaries of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), has facilitated public meetings in recent months warning against the agreement between London and the Twenty-Seven. While enjoying "The historic moment", he believes that now is the time for vigilance.
