Never miss a thing from Belfast and beyond - sign up for FREE updates direct to your email inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Northern Ireland will be permitted to stay within the single market and the customs union, Europe is set to announce this week.

A deal by party leaders means one part of the UK will be offered post-Brexit special treatment.

The motion is expected to be passed next week to coincide with a promise of available substantial funding – certainly more than the £1.2billion offered from the Government to the DUP.

Sinn Fein is said to be delighted with the move, pushed forward by its MEP Martina Anderson in back room meetings which excluded Northern Ireland’s two other MEPs Diane Dodds and Jim Nicholson. The news has had an unexpected consequence in Belfast, where families in a shared housing project were last week threatened by loyalists.

Dissident republicans plotting “severe” retaliation have ditched plans for a violent response.

A dissident republican source said: “The operation in response to loyalist threats to Catholic families in South Belfast is off. It has been made clear that no action should be taken at is time. The dissident movement and republican activists are in communication, and on this matter there is agreement.

“There will be no threat to the stability of the Good Friday Agreement as we push for Irish unification.

“Republicans will not be used as pawns for loyalists and unionists in their determination to retain Northern Ireland in the UK.

“With positive movement in Europe over Brexit talks, we are now closer to reunification than in last 100 years.

“We have assurances Europe is to declare the North will remain in the single market and customs union.

“We have assurances the border between the UK and Europe will not be inside Ireland but at UK ports.

“The loyalist threat to Catholics in a shared community in Belfast is despicable but intended as a distraction to lure us into military action.

“Loyalists and unionists should wake up to the fact that leaders would sacrifice stability and peace for the sake of remaining in the UK.

“The price the public would have paid was to be high, very high.”

Dissidents believe loyalists were lured into a dirty tricks campaign to destabilise the Good Friday Agreement as Sinn Fein negotiated with Europe over special status.

One source said: “We know how close we are now to the Sinn Fein position in Europe being signed off. It is a matter of days.”

Mrs Anderson is said to be at the heart of back room negotiations over the Irish border issue.

As the sole MEP available to represent the pro-Europe stance voted for by the majority of Northern Ireland voters, the situation has fallen in the favour of Sinn Fein and their desire to stay within Europe.

Republicans assert she has the ear and respect of Europe, ensuring her voice is clearly heard over the all-important border question.

The retention of Northern Ireland in the single market and the customs union would ensure both parts of the island would be closer than at any time since partition. However with health, business, security, military intelligence and agriculture already working steadily on a cross-border basis, there would be little practical change.

The border would be maintained as it is today, and the hard UK border would be clearly signposted to ports and airports around England, Wales and Scotland.

But the special dispensation given to Northern Ireland would give Scotland a huge bargaining chip and Prime Minister Theresa May would have to oversee the constitutional challenge and essentially the break-up of the union.

One source said: “We are right on the very moment of history here in terms of Britain’s hard border with the rest of the world.

“Kudos is now being given to [Sinn Fein leader] Gerry Adams for this move with Mrs Anderson. She has played a blinder in Europe.

“She is well known, well liked and well respected and more importantly she is being listened to and no other party in Northern Ireland is privy to those all important chats.

“However, no matter what Europe signs off next week, no matter how excited Sinn Fein and Europe are about the proposal, it is down to the Government what they sign up to.

“If Theresa May stands proud Europe could find themselves in a Shakespearean drama with a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said: “Sinn Fein are pushing an already open door here but the promise of allowing Northern Ireland to stay within the single market and customs union is not worth a row of buttons without agreement from Downing Street. And we must remember who Downing Street depends on in power – certainly not a party who will want to see any constitutional challenge on the union.

“So Europe plans to state their position next week and a motion for special dispensation for Northern Ireland will pass, but who will endorse that?

“Theresa May has already said there will be no border down the Irish Sea which is effectively what this would mean.

“Sinn Fein may feel gleeful and convinced they are heading to a united Ireland with the help of their European federalist friends, but it’s not so straight forward and I don’t take the utterances of the European Parliament that seriously.

“I believe we will be leaving Europe without a deal now, to work under the World Trade Organisation rules.”