The Wall Street Journal - 22.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Thursday, August 22, 2019 |A

bring it back,” he said.

“Twenty years ago, we

thought it was over.”

The Police Service of North-

ern Ireland shares those con-

cerns. It has warned that cus-

toms checkpoints could

become a target for nationalist

terrorists. While the main na-

tionalist group that fought in

the Troubles—the Irish Repub-

lican Army—has dispersed, a

number of smaller dissident

groups remain active.

The U.K.’s impending depar-

ture from the EU is now bring-

ing Northern Ireland’s divi-

sions back into focus. Opinion

polls suggest there is growing

support for Irish reunification

among younger people from a

nationalist background.

“The debate around Irish

unity now becomes a debate

around rejoining the European

Union,” said Colin Harvey, a

law professor at Queen’s Uni-

versity in Belfast. “I think that

resonates with the younger

generation who are potentially

watching a lot of the benefits

from European Union mem-

bership disappear in light of

Brexit.”

Many of those who bene-

fited from the peace brought

about by the Good Friday

Agreement say they hope the

pact’s spirit will stay intact.

“We have to be incredibly

cautious,” said 22-year-old

Conor McArdle, a student of

lawandhumanrightsinBel-

fast.

Irish, like his father, frequently

cross over to Ireland to eat out

and hang out with friends.

“It’s really easy,” she said. “I

don’t even think about it as

crossing the border.”

“The Good Friday Agree-

ment was the start of a process

that has let me live a life that

wasn’t like my parents’ or my

sister’s,” said Ms. Finn. Her

older sister, born 12 years ear-

lier, can remember not being

able to attend school because

of bomb scares and soldiers

patrolling near their home.

Under an accord negotiated

by former U.K. Prime Minister

Theresa May, a “backstop” ar-

rangement would have elimi-

nated the need for border

checks by keeping Northern

Ireland in the EU’s customs

union and single market for

goods. A majority of voters in

Northern Ireland voted to re-

main in the EU during the 2016

Brexit referendum.

But Boris Johnson, Britain’s

new prime minister, has argued

the backstop would keep the

U.K. too closely tethered to the

bloc. He says he is prepared to

wrench the U.K. out of the EU

and the government of Mr.

Johnson’s predecessor, The-

resa May, was for the backstop

to remain in place until Britain

could reach a trade agreement

with the EU.

But Mr. Johnson, a leading

supporter of Brexit, has ar-

gued the measure would keep

the U.K. too closely tied to the

EU, and says he is ready to

yank Britain out the bloc in

less than three months with-

out a deal.

So far, the issue has proved

insurmountable and will likely

be high on the agenda when

Mr. Johnson meets leaders of

France and the EU later this

week.

Britain’s prime minister has

proposed technological fixes

to monitor and regulate trade

between Ireland and Northern

Ireland without introducing

border checks. In a letter to

European Council President

Donald Tusk sent Monday

night, Mr. Johnson urged the

EU to remove the backstop en-

tirely after the U.K. Parliament

voted down the withdrawal

agreement three times, lead-

ing to Mrs. May’s resignation.

But European officials have

knocked back the U.K.’s latest

proposals, saying they aren’t

detailed enough. “Those

against the backstop and not

proposing realistic alterna-

tives in fact support re-estab-

lishing a border,” Mr. Tusk

said in response to Mr. John-

son’s letter.

Ms. Merkel on Tuesday

WORLD NEWS

called for what she called

“practical solutions.” When

pressed Wednesday on what

those might be, she said she

wanted to hear proposals from

the U.K. on what the Irish bor-

der might look like post-Brexit.

Once it becomes clearer

what the new arrangements

might be, the backstop would

no longer be necessary as a

placeholder, she said, signaling

it was still possible to find a

solution before Oct. 31, when

Britain is set to leave the EU.

“We said we could find a

solution in two years, but we

could probably also find one in

the next 30 days to come,” the

chancellor said, stressing that

for that to happen, the future

relationship between the U.K.

and EU would have to be abso-

lutely clear.

“We have already discussed

and resolved issues with imag-

ination within the EU so I be-

lieve we can find a way here.

That will be the task,” Ms.

Merkel said.

Mr. Johnson said he would

be more than happy to work

with this time frame.

Some European officials

have expressed fears that Mr.

Johnson’s real intention is to

drive Britain out of the trade

bloc and then blame the EU,

pushing his country closer to

the U.S. in the process. But

people close to the discussions

aren’t dismissing his insis-

tence that he wants a deal.

British Prime Minister Boris

Johnson told German Chancel-

lor Angela Merkel he is seri-

ous about getting a deal to

smooth the U.K.’s exit from the

European Union, but said EU

provisions aimed at prevent-

ing a hard border from divid-

ing the island of Ireland will

have to go—or Britain will

crash out of the bloc without

an agreement.

“We do need that backstop

removed,” Mr. Johnson told

reporters, standing next to Ms.

Merkel before an evening

meeting in Berlin on Wednes-

day. “But if we can do that

then I’m absolutely certain we

can move forward together.”

The Irish backstop domi-

nated Mr. Johnson’s first bout

of face-to-face diplomacy since

becoming prime minister last

month. The measure is de-

signed to ensure that Britain’s

departure doesn’t lead to cus-

toms checks and regulatory in-

spections along the border be-

tween Northern Ireland, part

of the U.K., and the Republic

of Ireland, an EU member

state. Such controls would po-

tentially undermine the 1998

peace accord that ended de-

cades of conflict in the north.

The idea, hammered out be-

tween negotiators for the EU

By Ruth Bender

in Berlin and Jason

Douglas in London

Johnson Says He Wants Brexit Deal

Angela Merkel greeting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Chancellery in Berlin on Wednesday.

MICHAEL SOHN/OMER MESSINGER/GETTY IMAGESPRESS

NEWRY, Northern Ireland—

When Patsy Doyle was in his

20s, he and several friends set

out from Belfast for a weekend

away in Ireland. They never

made it. They were stopped at

a border checkpoint by British

security forces, searched and

detained for several hours be-

fore returning home.

Those like Mr. Doyle who

lived through the era known as

the Troubles knew their daily

lives could be interrupted at

any moment. He remembers

funerals for people killed in

political violence. If he left the

house with friends and didn’t

return soon, he says his par-

ents feared for his life.

A generation later, the now

63-year-old Mr. Doyle says he

has never worried that way

about his son, Brian Ó Dug-

haill, who is 25. “I would never

want my son to go through

that, or see his friends go

through that,” he said.

People who have come of

age in Northern Ireland since a

1998 peace deal have avoided

the violence that beset the re-

gion for three decades. Their

generation has been freer to

ignore the differences that

have divided the island of Ire-

land since it was partitioned in

1922 and the north remained

in British hands.

But as the prospect of Brit-

ain abruptly leaving the Euro-

pean Union without a deal be-

comes more likely as the Oct.

31 deadline approaches, young

people now face the possibility

that a physical border might

again divide Ireland in two,

potentially reopening tradi-

tional animosities and risking

a return to violence.

The disappearance of the

physical markers of partition

underlies the main accom-

plishment of the 1998 peace

deal, which was agreed on

Good Friday that year.

It allowed the mainly Catho-

lic nationalist population to

forget they lived in what re-

mains part of the U.K. In re-

turn, the mainly Protestant

unionist population that wants

Northern Ireland to remain a

part of the U.K. was assured

there would be no change in its

status without a referendum.

Today it is difficult to know

exactly when the border has

been crossed, a far cry from

the heavily fortified lines of

defense that marked where

Ireland ended and Northern

Ireland began at the height of

the Troubles.

Mr. Ó Dughaill, a mechanical

engineer who lives and works

near the small border city of

Newry and often runs errands

over the border, feels like Lon-

don politicians don’t under-

stand or care what’s at stake.

He said it seems like there’s a

“lack of empathy or under-

standing of what is a very real

potential problem here.”

Mr. Ó Dughaill and his 24-

year-old girlfriend, Doire Finn,

who both consider themselves

BYALEXACORSE

ANDPAULHANNON

Northern Ireland’s Old Strife Is a New Worry

Patsy Doyle, below, is grateful his son Brian Ó Dughaill, above with his girlfriend, Doire Finn, never faced the violence his generation did.

CHARLES MCQUILLAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)

0% 20 40 60

British

Irish

Northern

Irish

Source:NorthernIrelandLifeandTimes

surveyof1,1NorthernIrishadults

conductedSept.18,18-Feb.5,19;

marginoferror:+/-.8pct.pts.

Note:Percentagesdon'taddupto1

duetorounding

British 35

Other 9

Ulster 2

Irish28%

Northern

Irish 25

Tangled Territory

YoungpeopleinNorthern

Irelandarefreertochoose

theirnationalidentitiesthan

theirparentswere,but

religionsarestillclosely

associatedwithnationalities.

Which of these best describes

the way you think of yourself?

Which of these religions do

you associate with?

Catholic

Noreligion

in less than three months with- Protestant

out a deal, in an effort to per-

suade the EU to negotiate a

new separation pact that

would remove the backstop.

The issue has triggered

concern in Washington. Demo-

cratic Speaker of the House

Nancy Pelosi has publicly

warned that Congress would

not endorse a U.S.-U.K. trade

deal if Britain’s steps to leave

the EU endangered the Good

Friday Agreement.

Standing on a peak near the

border recently, overlooking

cows and sheep on hilltops

that used to host military out-

posts, Mr. Doyle said he feared

that terrorists could target any

border infrastructure, sparking

a return to broader violence.

“A hard border can easily

A revived border

after a no-deal Brexit

risks dividing and

inflaming Ireland.

Mr. Putin said the blast victims

were doing ‘important work.’

ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/PRESS POOL

Russian President Vladimir

Putin said a deadly explosion

in northern Russia earlier this

month occurred during the

test of a promising weapons

system and cast the Russian

personnel who perished as na-

tional heroes.

“This is work in the mili-

tary field, work on promising

weapons systems,” Mr. Putin

said at a news conference dur-

ing a trip to Helsinki. “We are

not hiding this.”

He said that the victims

who died or were injured “did

extremely important work to

ensure the security of our

state.”

Mr. Putin didn’t say what

weapon was being tested dur-

ing the Aug. 8 accident. Presi-

dent Trump has said it was

the test of a nuclear-powered

cruise missile.

Russia’s state nuclear

agency Rosatom said this

month that five of its staff

members were killed and three

were injured in a blast involv-

ing “isotope power sources”

that took place during a rocket

test on a platform in the

White Sea. Two Defense Min-

istry officials also died, ac-

cording to Russian officials.

Standing beside Finnish

President Sauli Niinisto, Mr.

Putin said there was no radia-

tion danger and that neighbor-

ing nations had not recorded a

spike in radioactivity.

The Wall Street Journal re-

ported on Monday that four

Russian monitoring stations

designed to detect nuclear ra-

diation had stopped transmit-

ting data to an international

arms-control organization in

Vienna.

Three of these monitoring

stations still appeared to be

silent as of Wednesday, ac-

cording to the Vienna-based

Comprehensive Nuclear Test

Ban Treaty Organization,

which receives the data.

They included the two mon-

itoring stations closest to the

accident site. “We have no up-

date,” a spokeswoman for the

organization said.

Russia has released little in-

formation about the accident,

which occurred near the Ne-

noksa military base on the

southern shore of the White

Sea. That base has been used

for decades to conduct missile

tests, according to declassified

U.S. intelligence reports.

Four days after the blast,

the scars from the explosion

were still visible in recently re-

leased photos taken by the

commercial satellite firm

Maxar Technologies. Apparent

scorch marks and debris were

seen on a damaged barge off

the coast, where the accident

took place.

A second barge was seen on

the beach. Maxar analysts said

it is possible that the two

barges were connected during

the test and then separated af-

ter the failed test.

A salvage ship was shown

in the satellite image, appar-

ently moving to the test plat-

form.

An updated satellite image

from Aug. 18 showed both

barges on the beach, where

they sat unattended.

By Georgi Kantchev

in Moscow

and Michael R. Gordon

in Washington

Explosion

Caused by

Arms Test,

Putin Says

The accident took

place near a military

base on the White

Sea’s southern shore.