Belfast, Northern Ireland (CNN) Niamh Burns is organizing a special 20-year reunion for her schoolmates this year. Its continuing impact has added to a collective trauma that serves as a unifying thread across Northern Ireland. "As you get older, you learn the politics of Northern Ireland and ... you would never have understood that as a kid anyway. The problem for unionists is that it keeps Northern Ireland in the same customs union as the Republic of Ireland (an EU member state) while adding checks on goods from the rest of the UK, of which Northern Ireland remains a part. This spring, as Northern Ireland prepared to celebrate the centenary of its foundation, those tensions reached fever pitch.

Source: CNN July 11, 2021 04:07 UTC