Irexit

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Irexit or Eirexit (Irish exit, get it!?, in Irish it called "Éire Amach", lit. Ireland out) is an astroturfed campaign for Ireland to leave the European Union. Such a campaign gained huge light after the Brexit referendum, especially since the problems of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union and how this will affect the Anglo-Irish Treaty which established the recognition of the state of Ireland.

Background

Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973 at the same time as the UK and joined the single market of the EU in 1993. Since joining, support in Ireland of the European Union has been very high, usually between 80 to 95% [no joke!]. Much of this support is due to the huge economic growth that Ireland has received in that time, mainly by vast foreign investment and European regional support. This turned the island from a relative economic backwater to a country with one of the highest GDP per head of capita in the union.

Even during the economic crisis, which much of it was due to dodgy finance and over-valued assets such as from the Anglo-Irish Bank and Quinn Group, support for Irish membership never really dipped as much of the blame was placed on the governments of Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.

Like any country that is a member, Ireland does have some sensitive areas against the European Union. These are mainly due to these three things:

1. Foreign affairs, concerning Irish neutrality
2. Social affairs, in relation to areas of traditional Catholic dogma such as abortion, divorce, child welfare and contraception, and
3. Tax affairs, in about Ireland’s low corporation tax of 12½% and generous tax breaks for overseas companies like Apple and Google.

Many of Ireland's eurosceptics have been using these three things as weapons against Ireland's membership. Examples of this include the conservative Catholic organisation Cóir, which campaigns against the EU on the alleged basis of trying to liberalise Ireland's social affairs, especially abortion.

Another significant issue is Ireland's physical isolation from the rest of the European Union, which is even more pronounced since the UK's departure. The border in Ireland, between the Republic and Northern Ireland, is also a major issue, with tens of thousands commuting across that border.

Irexit

Since Brexit started in 2016, many British Brexiteers have "discovered" that due to policies that are covered by both the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Belfast Agreement [aka Good Friday Agreement] (to which Ireland is a signatory) has meant that there has to be a "frictionless border", an international border without checks and roadblocks between the UK and Ireland. This means that from the UK perspective, the UK would have to be completely intertwined with the EU on various policies, it gives in the effect of Brexit in name only. From this, worries about losing a major economic partner in the United Kingdom and attempts to bubble the populism of the U.S. and the UK, there been a growing attempt to build an Irexit narrative in Ireland.

In September 2018 such as an Irexit party was established in form of the Irexit Freedom to Prosper Party, which was renamed in party's paperwork in 2019 as the Irish Freedom Party by conservative newspaper columnists, Hermann Kelly and John Waters. Interestingly, the Brexit Party's leader Nigel Farage was present in the party's launch in Dublin, which naturally raised eyebrows. Also, there have been questions of where the finance of the party has come from, as it is such a fringe viewpoint. However, the attempt was a washout with recent 2019 European and local elections placing them in the doldrums. Hermann Kelly also has an intriguing past, as previously he was an advisor to Farage in the European Parliament and notably tried to deny the existence of Magdalene laundries. Until May 2020 until she was asked to leave, the party's chair was Dolores Cahill who later was a notorious COVID-19 denier.

There have also been other links between Irexit and the British far-right. An astroturf group called ”Muintir na hÉireann” (People of Ireland) which is named after a former far-right party of the same name and is based in a house in England, has been linked to various British far-right groups including UKIP and the BNP. Irish-British commentator Paul Stains under his website Guido Fawkes, has been stroking the idea to the British that Irexit is growing in Ireland especially since the European Commission fined Apple for non-payment of tax to the Irish taxpayer in tax agreement with the Irish government.

In August 2019, two snooty teenagers from Turning Point UK Alice and Beatrice Grant posted a video on Twitter urging Ireland to “stand up against the establishment to join the peaceful, political revolution to regain your independence and your freedom” by leaving the EU together with the United Kingdom. They claimed that historical strong links between the island nations and the country were paying one billion euro annually to the European Union. Naturally, they were laughed off as being completely ignorant and arrogant about Irish affairs.

Another notable Irexit campaigner that is often paraded around the Brexit press is former Irish ambassador to Canada and Jamaica, Ray Bassett. He claims that Ireland should leave the EU, and follow the UK in trading with the Commonwealth nations like Canada and Australia. However, it is often not mentioned that he is just a spokesman for the Irish Freedom Party. Plus this eejit's viewpoints on Great Britain would be considered by most Irish as someone who is a West Brit, a derogatory term to refer to an Irishman who is an Anglophile which considering Ireland's history is seen as insulting.

See also

• Brexit