Description
For most of the UK Brexit is now done. While there are many things that can and should be done to improve relations between GB and EU, there is nothing that has to be done. Northern Ireland, however, remains a place where problems are parked rather than solved. The Protocol, Windsor Framework, and Democratic Consent Mechanism, combined with the sectarian divisions exacerbated by the referendum means that Brexit is very much a live issue that is having an enduring effect on identities across the region.
In this paper, starting with existential meditations from Samuel Beckett’s Unnamable and drawing on data from the 2024 Northern Ireland General Election Survey, I attempt to sketch the complex identities that are developing in post-referendum Northern Ireland and untangle the hopes and aspirations that are enabling people to go on living in a perpetual Brexit.
