Brexit threatens Good Friday agreement, Irish PM warns

Ireland’s prime minister has warned that Brexit threatens the Good Friday agreement and could “drive a wedge” between Britain and Ireland.

Leo Varadkar also sought to reassure unionists, who fear that his government is using the moment to push for a united Ireland, that he does not have “a hidden agenda”.

The taoiseach was joined on Tuesday by the former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and the British ambassador, Kim Darroch, at an event in Washington to mark the 20th anniversary of the peace deal.

Reflections on the scale of that “historic achievement” fell under the shadow of Britain’s planned exit from the EU.

Brexit had “undoubtedly changed the political weather”, Varadkar told an audience including US politicians at the Library of Congress.

“To me, Brexit is a threat to the Good Friday agreement simply because it threatens to drive a wedge between Britain and Ireland, between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and potentially between the two communities in Northern Ireland. And that’s why we must do all that we can to make sure that those wedges, that that risk, does not become reality.”

Source: theguardian