Citizens and Sinn Féin leaders gather at crossing points where the North and Republic meet

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Hundreds of people took part in a number of demonstrations on the Irish border on Saturday in opposition to Brexit.

Border Communities Against Brexit (BCAB) organised the protests to mark the day after Britain had been due to leave the European Union.

Demonstrations took place along a number of border crossing points in Counties Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Louth, Monaghan and Tyrone.

Demonstrators set up a mock checkpoint in Carrickcarnon, Louth, which was manned by protesters dressed as customs officers and carrying anti-Brexit placards and EU flags.

Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Féin, was joined by vice-president Michelle O’Neill and Newry and Armagh assembly member Conor Murphy.

BCAB spokesman Declan Fearon warned that a crash-out Brexit was “increasingly likely”.

He said: “A border in the past meant this road was closed for over 40 years and this community was divided.

“We won’t allow the very hard rightwing Tories and the ERG [European Research Group], and especially the DUP [Democratic Unionist party], to destroy this community and bring us back to the days when this was an economic wasteland.”

About 300 people gathered at the border on a road that was closed during the Troubles.

Colin Harvey, a professor of human rights law at the school of law at Queen’s University Belfast, said he was against any attempt to “undermine or attack” the Good Friday agreement.

He said: “We have long experience of people trying to put walls in our way, and we take them down. If anybody attempts to put barriers on this island again, they are coming down. Any obstacles on this island will be removed.

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“We, as a society, are used to people putting up mountains for us to climb – and we will continue to climb them. There will be no hard border on the island of Ireland. We are going to be the generation who ends the major division on this island, who can achieve the unification of our own country, and we are going to get there.”

McDonald said: “We are at a very dangerous moment where we inch ever closer to the real possibility of a crash and a chaotic Brexit.

“At this stage, people should understand how serious that would be for all of us. The reality is that Brexit in any form is a disaster for the island of Ireland.”

She also accused the DUP of being “seduced” by Westminster.

She added: “The people who live in the north of Ireland wish to continue in a society that is someway prosperous, that’s stable and where many people identify not just as Irish but also as Europeans.

“They did not consent to Brexit. They will never, never, never give up on that point either.”

Student Aine Quinn, who lives along the border, predicted Brexit would bring economic chaos to the area.

She said: “Yesterday [29 March] was supposed to be Brexit day and today we are no clearer on what that means than we were three years ago.

“What we do know is that there are no good outcomes for us. The British government tried to dismiss us as a small issue among other big issues.

“The main problem for me and my community is the free movement of people, whether to work, study or trade.”