Writer Bonnie Greer has said Ireland owes nothing to the UK when it comes to Brexit and said it was unrealistic for British political leaders to expect the US to agree a trade deal that "shafts Ireland".
Speaking during a Brexit debate on BBC’s Question Time TV programme on Thursday night, the author and journalist warned the US would not agree to a trade deal with the UK that damages its relationship with Ireland.
“I hear people talking about Ireland as if this country owns Ireland. Ireland owes this country (UK) nothing. Ireland owes this country no concessions, it owes it no quarter, it owes it nothing,” she said.
‘Ireland owes this country nothing’@Bonn1eGreer says Britain cannot ‘shaft’ Ireland if they want a post Brexit trade agreement with the US. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/nL66tXiSas
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) October 3, 2019
She said the United States is Irish, and referred to the prominence given to St Patrick's Day in the US.
She said people in the US were very serious about Ireland. “Don’t mess with it. Don’t make it look bad.”
She continued: “If anybody thinks that they are going to get a deal through and have a trade relationship with the United States that shafts Ireland, you have got another thing coming. It is not going to happen.”
Greer, who works for the New European newspaper, also accused the British government of failing to take the peace process in Northern Ireland seriously enough.
She described the Good Friday Agreement as a truce that had brought peace to Northern Ireland.
“It is a truce because the United States of America and the EU sat down with this country to make it happen. We have to be much more serious about this,” Greer said.
The programme also dealt with how Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle is being treated with Greer suggesting it was an example of how it is "bad being a foreigner in this country right now."
Asked by the audience why she believed this, Greer responded: “I have a friend who is Polish. She has lived here since about 2000. Her little girl was born here. She does not speak Polish to her anymore on the bus or the Tube because people abuse her.”
Greer said her friend was unable to speak to her daughter in her native tongue in public because she is “maligned and hassled”. - Agencies