Brexit related: could th UK cede NI to Ireland unilaterally?

[BwanaBob]

The Brexit situation started fueling crazy ideas in my head, or rather questions, that I assume have factual answers. So…

Could the British government throw their hands up after all these years and tell Ireland that as of 1/1/22, Northern Ireland is now yours. Along with that declaration they offer monetary assistance to any who do not wish to “live” in the Republic and move them to Britain, or pay them some sort of severance.

Would the government legally have to take the NI citizens wishes into account? Or could they just make the declarations I mentioned?

I assume Ireland would have a say but I also assume they’d say “hell yes, we’re fine with that” and would welcome any and all NI citizens who wish to remain as Irish citizens.

I also assume this scenario will never happen; but I am interested in the nuts and bolts of the situation.

[PastTense]

The nuts and bolts don’t matter because doing this would totally destroy any political party which did it.

[PatrickLondon]

No, or not quite. There’s been for decades a guarantee in UK law that Northern Ireland will stay part of the UK for as long as its people wish it to. AIUI, the Good Friday Agreement included not only that principle but also a guarantee that Northern Ireland could become part of the Republic if a referendum in NI voted to, with conditions as to when and how a referendum could be called. That agreement is an international treaty, approved by referendum in both parts of Ireland and written into international law.

So no, Westminster can’t just hand Northern Ireland over. It’s legally impossible and politically unthinkable. But if there were a government not so dependent on the DUP, and if the Northern parties were to do their job and re-establish the Stormont government, then the problem arising over Brexit might (and there is talk about it) lead to the conditions for a reunification referendum to take place. And then, who knows?

[Colibri]

@BwanaBob

Would the government legally have to take the NI citizens wishes into account? Or could they just make the declarations I mentioned?

According to the Ireland Act of 1949, Northern Ireland would continue to be part of the United Kingdom, unless its separation was consented to by the Parliament of Northern Ireland. So, no.

Among the provisions:

Declared that all of Northern Ireland would continue as part of the United Kingdom, and would remain within the Commonwealth, unless the Parliament of Northern Ireland consented otherwise. The Working Party Report noted around this that “it [had] become a matter of first-class strategic importance…that the North should continue to form part of His Majesty’s dominions”.[2] The Report continued that it indeed seemed “unlikely that Great Britain would ever be able to agree to [Northern Ireland secession] even if the people of Northern Ireland desired it.”[2]

[mikecurtis]

The decision (as PatrickLondon points out) lies with the people of NI not Parliament.
And those people are split right now. A majority favors staying in GB, but an even bigger majority favors staying in the EU. So a “no deal Brexit” could force a reunification referendum, and many pundits are predicting that it could pass.

A united Ireland now looks like an increasing possibility

What will Brexit mean for Ireland? | The Week UK

ETA: Colibri, the Northern Ireland Act 1998 supersedes the 1949 one

[BwanaBob]

Thanks; as always, ignorance fought well here at the Dope.

[Colibri]

@mikecurtis

ETA: Colibri, the Northern Ireland Act 1998 supersedes the 1949 one

Thanks for the current legislation. However, the previous act established that the status of Northern Ireland was in its own hands from just after the full recognition of the Republic of Ireland. The main thing that seems to have changed is that any separation would have to be based on a referendum instead of the NI Parliament.

[Kobal2]

A propos of nothing, there’s in fact a precedent for a country trying to cede land to another country which actively refuses it : Bir Tawil. It’s a speck of desert on the border between Egypt and Sudan, and both countries insist that it belongs to the other (because both insist the other take it in exchange for the Hala’ib triangle, which both claim).

[Elendil_s_Heir]

An interesting proposal in the OP - extraordinarily unlikely to ever come to pass IRL, though.

There’s no NI Parliament anymore, incidentally: Parliament of Northern Ireland - Wikipedia

And its successor is on indefinite hiatus: Northern Ireland Assembly - Wikipedia

[hibernicus]

The Good Friday agreement is clear that this would not be allowable without the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland.

[The participants will]
(i) recognise the legitimacy of whatever choice is freely exercised by a majority of the people of Northern Ireland with regard to its status, whether they prefer to continue to support the Union with Great Britain or a sovereign united Ireland;
(ii) recognise that it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their
right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish, accepting that
this right must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland;
(iii) acknowledge that while a substantial section of the people in Northern Ireland share the legitimate wish of a majority of the people of the island of Ireland for a
united Ireland, the present wish of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland, freely exercised and legitimate, is to maintain the Union and, accordingly, that Northern
Ireland’s status as part of the United Kingdom reflects and relies upon that wish; and that it would be wrong to make any change in the status of Northern Ireland save with the consent of a majority of its people;
(iv) affirm that if, in the future, the people of the island of Ireland exercise their right of self-determination on the basis set out in sections (i) and (ii) above to bring about a united Ireland, it will be a binding obligation on both Governments to introduce and support in their respective Parliaments legislation to give effect to that wish;