Former senior Irish diplomat Ray Bassett gave a fascinating interview to the Irish News last weekend. His comments on Brexit were especially sharp.

“My opinion is that the EU used Ireland as a bit of a battering ram against the Brits,” he told journalist Pat McArt.

“Despite all the scare stories, there was no way they were going to put a border back on the island of Ireland. Not a chance. Too many people had died because of that Border.”

Bassett suggested that had the government under Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney been “less strident” during Brexit negotiations and acted with generosity in Brussels on the UK’s behalf, the “disasters” of prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss would have been avoided.

Instead, the relationship between London and Dublin, painstakingly built up during the peace process, was destroyed – damage that is only now starting to heal.

Bassett was the Republic’s longest-serving official in Northern Ireland and a key figure in the peace process, before leaving Belfast in 2010 to serve as ambassador to Canada.

His observations on Brexit were all the more intriguing for being offered after McArt asked about a united Ireland.

The implication that Brexit has been a........

© The Irish Times