This bridge in Belleek links the counties of Donegal in Ireland and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.
Although the area was heavily affected by the Troubles, for almost twenty years people
have been crossing from Ireland to the UK without even realising.
However, Brexit could change that.
Were I live I have to cross the border twice before I get to my house, which is only over
the road, and it's not half a mile away.
The island economy does not recognise the border at the moment, simply for the fact
that both the north and the south of Ireland are in the EU.
To change that in any way creates major problems for agriculture, for industry, for small businesses.
Everybody is worried about the consequences of Brexit.
From the farmers through to the producers, processors, and even the hospitality industry as well.
There is awful lot of our food ingredients come from Europe.
My concerns are around the supply chain, being able to get the raw materials, being able
to export the food that you make, labelling, and also product of geographic indication.
Everything is really up in the air.
And for the last five, six months we've seen people really concerned and stopping investing
in food businesses, because they just don't know what the outcome will be.
With Brexit as it stands, we still don't know if we are getting a deal or no deal.
So we are restricted in how much planning and preparation we can actually do.
Customs paperwork, regulations, labelling standards, quality of ingredients, right the
way through to our supply chain for bringing goods in.
We bring in glassware from France, from Italy we bring stoppers from Italy, our labels are from Ireland.
Our supply chain is extensively based across the EU.
Anything which creates barriers is very problematic, and it can also have a destabilising impact
on other aspects of life here.
You can go half a mile from here in three different directions and there would have
been a British army military installation.
This place was very heavily controlled by the British army for the British state.
The border was very heavily patrolled, so people remember that.
I remember it.
And I remember all of the difficulties and dangers that came with that.
People are very afraid of that coming back.
When the first customs post was built.
And then the customs post gets attacked and police officers have to then go in and guard
the customs post on the border.
And then the police are attacked over a period of time.
And then the army come in to guard the police over a period of time.
And when the army are attacked they built things on the border.
You never start off with the intention of having twelve army watchtowers and helicopter
bases, but it's how security then builds up in response to events and attacks.
There is always that possibility that violence could flare up, it's going to be up to people
like myself and other community leaders to ensure that, no matter what kind of Brexit
comes, that we try to keep a lid on it.
But in a kind of vacuum you never know what's going to happen.
If it's a hard Brexit it's going to be devastating, but even if it's, what they call a soft Brexit,
it's not going to be good for the people here, people living on the border, any border.
It doesn't do good economically, socially, community wise.
I've never seen customs on the border, and I don't know how I would react, or how maybe
some of the other young people.
So, it's important that we prevent that.
Because I think it'll be a bigger reality shock if it does come about.
We've never seen anything other than peace growing up.
We've never seen the hard border or anything like.
We cross over the border and don't even realise we're crossing over the border.
So, I think it's good that we all keep to peace.
I don't want to change, like.
When I was talking to commissioner Barnier here.
I was explaining to him: 'Do you see the border over there, commissioner?', and he said to
me, 'No, where?', and I said, 'that's the idea, you can't see it', and the idea is
to keep it that way whatever the result of Brexit is.
Brexit in Northern Ireland is not only a political and economic matter, here it is a threat to fragile peace.
This isn't just about trade and tariffs here.
I know that's what a lot of the debate in Brussels and in Westminster is about.
This here in Northern Ireland is about identity.
We fear that our Irish identity, our Irish citizenship will be challenged and compromised
by the whole Brexit adventure.
Personally, I'm a Unionist, but I voted to remain.
But through the course of Brexit negotiations here have found myself getting increasingly
irritated by the attitude of the Irish government and, indeed, their European partners in terms
of the hard line they are taking around Brexit.
Most things here tend to divide up along orange and green issues, as we call them here.
And we have Republicans now, there is an old saying that they see Englands difficulty as
Irelands opportunity, and they have become more aggressive in their pursuit of a united Ireland.
If there is no agreement on the future relationship by 2020, the entire UK would be part of a
customs union with only Northern Ireland remaining aligned to some of the EU single market rules.
The so called backstop.
Essentially what it does is separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK,
constitutionally and economically.
First of all, Northern Ireland will be treated differently from the rest of the United Kingdom.
And as a Unionist, that's something I don't want to see happen.
My whole reason for being in politics is to maintain Northern Irelands place within the
United Kingdom, and what the backstop would do is take us away.
It would essentially make us a third country to the rest of the UK.
It would place barriers, regulatory barriers in the middle of the Irish Sea.
And that's not something that we want to see happen.
The polarisation of society into British and Irish as a result of Brexit is a very...
it could do harm to all that has been done up to now.
The European Union was instrumental in helping us achieve what we did in the Good Friday Agreement.
But it was also the fact that the European Union provided a space for Irish and British
to meet, whether it would be Brussels or elsewhere, and again to get to know each other better,
learn from each other.
Now that is being removed and it is more than unfortunate.
Brexit is bad for the United Kingdom but it's much worse for Northern Ireland.
What Brexit has done, it has highlighted the division.
It has made the division more stark and more difficult to deal with.
And I think what it'll end up doing, is it will mean that those people who even from
a traditionally British background, who believe in the European Union,
who want to be part of a global world.
Who want to be part of an economy and a society that actually looks out for people and wants
to protect the environment and wants to protect animal welfare and wants to be part of a European economy.
I think those people will begin to choose change, constitutional change in Ireland,
because they will see it as their only option.
In a way that's a very positive thing, but all of that division and tension needs to
be managed very very carefully.
I don't find any evidence, certainly within the Unionist/Loyalist community of any appetite
to return to violence.
Having said that, it is wise not to be complacent, because when I was a young man many many years
ago I didn't think that we would slide into violence either.
So it's wise to be careful about how we deal with the current situation.
To be honest, I don't know what way it's going to go.
The conditions that led to the conflict back in 1969-1970 no longer pertain.
The British army are not in military occupation of vast areas of the north.
The circumstances for violence and for armed actions, I don't believe that they are there.
But who can say, you know, what's going to happen in the future.
I'm afraid that the minority will lead the majority.
And that kind of about says it, I don't believe want to go back to the way that it was.
Nobody in their right mind wants to go back to the way it was.
I don't want to go back the way it was.
I don't want to see my kids leading the life that I led, and not being able to go places,
who your friends could be and who they couldn't be.
It is up to our politicians to make sure that doesn't happen again.