An Irish compromise on the backstop would soften Brexit

Our schadenfreude and our unyielding policy on the border risk scuppering a soft Brexit

A hundred years ago today, the Irish Times reported the killing of Martin O’Brien of the Royal Irish Constabulary in a raid by “some twenty or thirty men” to free a hunger-striking IRA prisoner, Robert Byrne, in Limerick. Byrne was also shot during the escape, and later died.

“A state of terrorism prevails throughout the country”, the paper lamented.

This was two months after the first meeting of Dáil Éireann had ratified the ...