Northern Ireland occupies a curious plane in the British public imagination — when it is considered at all. It doesn’t get filed under foreign policy. Northern Ireland is one of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Equally, events there don’t get treated in the same way as if they happened in Scotland or Wales, let alone England.
Barely a word was spoken of it in Westminster during the EU referendum campaign, despite the fact that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with the bloc. The consequences of this are very much a live political issue affecting people living right across the UK.
