Neale Richmond

And this was night and day.

This wasn't about Ireland.

This was about the EU and the importance of the Union.

I did get worried when I'd repeatedly have to go on Irish media, and particularly Northern Irish media, which was a trickier station, believe it or not, and people just couldn't...

Because of that, and I go back to my central point, the level of ignorance about how the European Union works meant people couldn't believe that the EU actually stuck up for a member state and stuck up for what the union actually means.

It's protecting Ireland.

The situation could have been a lot worse.

I've said it a million times.

There's no such thing as a good Brexit.

It's all about damage limitation.

And what we do have at the moment is working as best possible.

There's certainly areas we'd like to see it work better and be cooperation to be closer.

Thankfully, thanks to European solidarity and a really consistent negotiation mandate, and I must say, political agreement across the spectrum here, I'd hammer the opposition at every opportunity if given the chance.

But there was multiple times when they could have absolutely abandoned the unified Irish position and they didn't.

And I do believe the opposition deserves a bit of credit for that as well.