a group representing the main loyalist
factions in northern ireland
says the creation of an eu customs
border under the brexit deal
undermines the union with britain and as
a result
has withdrawn support for the good
friday peace agreement
the belfast agreement brought to an end
a conflict that claimed
over three and a half thousand lives the
loyalist move comes amid a row this week
over trading rules and a wider push for
a referendum on irish unity from the
main
nationalist party shin fame fergal kin
has been gauging reaction
amongst unionists
the echoes of the past are being
summoned forth
the old fear of the union broken of
being sold out
to the catholic south in our province
we say never
never ever never
but the troubles have ended the power of
the catholic church has faded away
the southern government speaks of
respecting unionist fears
i don't believe the future of the island
of ireland is about majoritarianism
uh in the crudest sense i think it's
about consensual relationships
trust he sort of gets it you know but
soothing words don't reassure loyalist
politician billy hutchinson
who feels irish nationalism is advancing
against
divided unionists he served 15 years in
jail for murdering two catholics during
the troubles
but later became an advocate of the
peace process
more than 20 years after the peace
agreement it's a measure of enduring
mistrust here
that for him irish unity would mean
victory for sinn fein
the party that spoke for the ira
if we were to live on a 32-20 iron i
would imagine some of that power would
be
uh decentralized and if that powers
decentralized to an ulster where it was
six counties or nine twenties
we would feel persecuted because the
people who would have the power would be
shin fian
i think i am right and saying we are the
most loyal part of great britain
but 100 years after the foundation of a
unionist ruled ulster
at the heart of the british empire that
world has been
changed by the troubles by demographics
and global transformation
belfast city of a thousand launches
the industrial muscle of the unionist
working class is gone
memorialized in popular art
where thousands once labored to build
ships like titanic
amazon now employs dozens
in this time of change i wondered what a
younger generation of unionists
might feel about the prospect of a
united ireland
sarah crichton is a lawyer left-wing in
her politics
and avowedly pro-union i don't know
where i fit in
where do i fit in in the united ireland
you know i'm british i'm irish as well
but it's something that worries me it
worries me i guess not so much the idea
but happening though obviously i don't
want it to happen
it's that it happens and with no plan we
don't know what's going on what it's
going to look like
there's no physical frontier on the
island anymore
but among many rural protestants the
long memory of killing
has left deep wounds this is the orange
hall at altenew bay
three miles from the border a frequent
target of vandalism
it has a beleaguered air
six protestants were murdered here at
the time of ireland's partition
hundred years ago
and this fifteen minutes drive away is
kings mills
scene of a more contemporary massacre
protestant workmen were lined up by the
roadside and shot dead by the ira
in 1976
it was a sectarian retaliation for the
killing of local catholics
kenny warden hid two wheat girls they're
only toddlers
alan black was the only survivor an
opposite whole world
what comes back if i can ask you
my 18 year old apprentice screaming for
his mummy
and a gun man coming over and blowing
his face away
and he was saying mommy mommy mommy
that comes back that comes back often
with all this talk of a border pole i've
met people and i met a lot of
protestants who are unsettled
fearful of what might be coming what do
you feel about it
i'm not fearful if
if a border pole will it's like it's
like everything else like brexit or
anything else
whoever votes for it will get it i'm a
unionist by nature
but i'll take whatever is voted on
whatever the vote is
a poll isn't imminent and predicting a
result
not possible but there's no certainty
that the ties which defined their
identity will endure
for the generations to come fergal keane
bbc news
belfast