Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] Timely article about IE (ROI?)-UK<br/>
Date: Sep 24, 2004 @ 19:30<br/>
Author: Kevin Meynell (Kevin Meynell &lt;knm@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-947399606">Lowell,<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt;If that&#39;s their choice, they shouldn&#39;t be surprised that the border attracts<br/>
&gt;various misconduct.  They have invited it, so they shouldn&#39;t complain.<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>I honestly didn&#39;t understand the point the article was trying to make. The <br/>
UK and the ROI, plus the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man operate a common <br/>
travel area, and anyone entering one member state, is free to travel <br/>
without restriction to any of the others. If there&#39;s a problem with illegal <br/>
immigrants (or whatever), then the problem is at the points of entry to the <br/>
UK, not at the border.<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt;True, but a boundary must exist if Ireland wants to be a separate nation from<br/>
&gt;the United Kingdom,  which it became in 1921 after long agitation.<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>Strictly speaking this is not correct. The ROI initially achieved <br/>
self-government as the Irish Free State in 1921, but this was only dominion <br/>
status within the (then) British Empire. It&#39;s certainly true that it <br/>
increasingly exercised de-facto sovereignty in the inter-war years, but it <br/>
only became a truly separate nation when a republic was declared in 1949.<br/>
<br/>
Even now, the UK and the ROI are still very intertwined in many ways. For <br/>
example, there are no immigration controls between the two countries, ROI <br/>
citizens are able to stand for and vote in UK elections, UK military forces <br/>
are still raised in the ROI, and in many sports (e.g. rugby, cricket) the <br/>
whole of Ireland is represented by one team.<br/>
<br/>
Regards,<br/>
<br/>
Kevin Meynell</div>