Border communities gathered on the border between the Irish town of Lifford and the Northern Irish town of Strabane during the night in protest against UK’s departure from the EU.
Holding flames and placards, residents on both sides of the border staged a candlelight vigil on a bridge connecting Ireland to Northern Ireland.
After another day of technical talks in Brussels, EU officials said an agreement had been reached on customs arrangements for Northern Ireland, ‘level playing field’ provisions on labour and environment standards.
But residents living on both sides of the border said they remained concerned that a hardening of the border would reignite divisions between local communities.
The conundrum for London is how to prevent the frontier becoming a backdoor into the EU’s single market without erecting controls which could undermine the 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of conflict in the province.
