Hello, you're very welcome to Longreads, a Jacuban podcast where we look in depth

the political topics and thinkers. My name is Daniel Finn, and the features editor here

at Jacuban, and I'll be presenting the show.

The Brexit crisis in the past few years turned the status of Northern Ireland into a vital

matter for British and European politics. Negotiations over Britain's departure from the EU hinged

on the question of how Northern Ireland should relate both to its southern neighbour

and to the rest of the United Kingdom.

For two years after the election of 2017, the Tory government in London relied on support

from the Democratic Unionist Party. As the Brexit crisis reached a crescendo near the

end of 2018, Boris Johnson spoke at the DUP conference and received a hero's welcome.

The following summer when Johnson became British Prime Minister, DUP leader Arlene Foster

expressed the hope that they could work together to resolve the crisis.

So we look forward to working with the Prime Minister in strengthening the union, we look

forward to working with the new Secretary of State and trying to find the restoration

of devolution, and of course we look forward to working with them on delivering the votes

of the British people in June of 2016 and delivering Brexit.

Soon afterwards, however, Johnson returned with a new Brexit deal that gave Northern Ireland

its own special arrangements and erected trade barriers in the Irish Sea. The DUP Sami

Wilson responded with outrage at Westminster.

We are not trying to stop Brexit. In fact, there has been no – we have been pilloried

in this house because we have been saying to be some of the most determined people to

deliver Brexit. But this is the Brexit that we have on offer is not a Brexit for the United

...