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Irish Border Residents Watch for Brexit Fallout

Associated Press

   BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - The border was drawn in 1921, splitting
   communities and sometimes property, as the British government sought to
   create a home for the majority Protestant population of Northern
   Ireland at a time when the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland won its
   independence.

   Today, that 310-mile (500-kilometer) frontier is largely invisible. The
   only way motorists know they have crossed into Northern Ireland is from
   the speed limit signs, which use miles per hour measurements, rather
   than the metric system used in the south. Keen observers might notice a
   slight change in the pavement as well.

   As Brexit takes effect Friday, residents on both sides of the border
   are concerned about protecting the relative peace and prosperity after
   the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. That accord helped end three decades of
   sectarian violence between paramilitary groups that wanted to reunify
   Ireland and those who insisted the six counties of Northern Ireland
   should remain part of the UK.

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