Soldiers return to Irish border as part of Brexit protest

People take part in an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth, expressing their opposition to the imposition of a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire - Credit: PA

Mock soldiers returned to the Irish border as protesters warned Theresa May not to allow the ‘nightmare’ situation of Brexit to derail Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace.

Actors joined Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald to use sledgehammers to demolish a concrete wall erected near the frontier in County Down.

Fatigues-wearing ‘military personnel’ looked on with mock machine guns raised.

Anti-Brexit slogans were daubed on the concrete in a Berlin Wall-style message of intent to Westminster.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warned on Friday that troops could be reinstated at the border following a no-deal Brexit.

The colourful, costumed and placard-waving crowd from across Ireland rejected the ‘terrifying’ prospect of a hard exit from Europe.

Pat Lambe, 58, said: ‘Land is sacred, Ireland is sacred to us and 20 years ago we all voted on the Good Friday Agreement, which to a lot of people said let’s move forward, there were compromises made on all sides.

‘Let’s move forward and see, can we get peace and – relatively – we did get peace.

‘There is a coach and horses being driven through that right now as regards the British government and the arrogance of them.

‘So the Good Friday Agreement means nothing?’

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Security towers manned by the British Army in the hilly and remote area near the city of Newry were decommissioned in 2003 as it ended conflict-era operations in Northern Ireland in support of the police.

The protesters recreated them in a deeply political drama played out in front of masses of supporters.

Local man Aaron Crilly, 23, said: ‘Brexit scares me, it is a nightmare scenario.’

He was born in 1995, the year after the first IRA and loyalist ceasefires.

‘I barely knew the Troubles but I grew up with the effects of the Troubles and my generation don’t want that to happen.

‘We want to prevent that from happening ever again, but with Brexit it seems like there is a storm, that storm is coming back again and it is just terrifying.’

A boy writes a message on concrete blocks that were temporarily installed as part of an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire – Credit: PA

Protesters took turns using a sledgehammer to demolish the temporarily-erected concrete block wall.

Crilly held his hammer high in mock triumph and brandished an EU flag.

An angle grinder was used to attack the metal structure housing actors playing soldiers, sparks flying.

They wore green and black fatigues and their faces were painted as they crouched in firing positions or aimed out of viewpoints from their ‘towers’.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald (second left) and deputy leader Michelle O’Neill (centre) knock down a symbolic wall that was built as part of an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire – Credit: PA

If the UK leaves Europe without a deal, the free flow of goods could be disrupted by the creation of a hard frontier on the island, the European Commission has said.

Co Donegal demonstrator Tom Murray said: ‘All the peace and prosperity that we have enjoyed will be destroyed by a hard border.

‘Communities could be dragged back into the old days of living in the shadow of someone else’s border.

‘We are the people who will suffer the most.’

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald (third left) and deputy leader Michelle O’Neill (right) stand in front of a symbolic wall that was built as part of an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire – Credit: PA