•David

UK Trade Minister Liam Fox has said it will be "very difficult" to address the issue of the Irish border before clarifying what the the EU-UK relationship will look like post-Brexit - i.e., until at least the outline of a trade deal has been agreed.

One solution that's been proposed is to leave NI within the EU customs union post-Brexit, so that all of Ireland will have one set of rules and a customs frontier can be avoided. But the NI DUP - a party necessary to keeping Theresa May's government afloat - has come out adamantly against that idea.

The Irish government has threatened to veto talks about trade after Brexit unless the UK provides a written guarantee of no hard border.

If a hard border comes about, tourism in the Island of Ireland - Ireland and NI alike - will be the biggest loser. That would be a shame.

Watch this space.