But Sheridan sees a threat to his life’s work, his family’s future and even the settlement that ended years of violence in British-ruled Northern Ireland should checkpoints reappear after Brexit on the “invisible” frontier with the Irish Republic.

“It’s crazy, crazy stuff. It absolutely cannot happen here. There cannot be a border — and that’s before even talking about the peace,” said Sheridan, a 56-year-old Protestant brought up in the pro-British unionist tradition.

Almost 18 months after Britain voted to leave the EU, the future of the only UK land frontier with the bloc after Brexit — and its role in sustaining about 20 years of fragile peace in Northern Ireland — is a major hurdle in the divorce talks.

Armed with a power of veto, the Irish government says the negotiations cannot progress unless Britain agrees to keep customs regulations the same north and south. This, Dublin says, is the only way of avoiding a damaging return to border controls.

Only road signs mark the frontier between the two member states of the EU’s single market, within which goods and people move freely. Trucks like those carrying Sheridan’s lambs rumble past the remains of disused checkpoints, built by the British army during three decades of political and sectarian violence that was settled by the 1998 peace deal.

For Sheridan, any change after Brexit in March 2019 to this smooth, tariff-free movement of livestock and common standards in both jurisdictions could spell ruin for the business he is in the process of passing on to his three children.

“If there’s a hard border, we’ll be pulling out. It will become a wasteland here,” said Sheridan, whose farm near the County Fermanagh village of Florencecourt lies only three km from the border.

Sheridan, who belongs to a campaign group called Border Communities against Brexit, has a warning for any politicians who upset the status quo. “Do you think I’m going to let them ruin my business that took blood, sweat and tears to build, and ruin my family’s future in our country that we want to live in? Do you think anybody’s going to put up with that?”

The economy of Ireland, north and south, has become deeply integrated since the single market’s creation in 1993. This, along with peace, has transformed previously neglected border areas such as rural County Fermanagh which depends largely on tourism and agriculture.

According to the Ulster Farmers’ Union, 40 per cent of all Northern Irish lambs are processed in the republic. A quarter of milk output also moves south, the Dairy UK trade body says, and around 60 per cent of Northern Ireland’s processing capacity is owned by dairy co-operatives from the republic.

If common standards cease in areas such as labelling and product traceability, business north and south “will grind to a halt,” Mike Johnston, Dairy UK’s Northern Ireland Director, told a UK parliamentary committee earlier this year.

“Brexit means Brexit”

The dismantling of military border posts was a vital aspect of the peace deal between Catholic nationalists seeking a united Ireland and Protestant unionists who wanted to keep Northern Ireland British. Over 3,600 died in the conflict.

Already the province’s government is suspended due to a row between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the nationalist Sinn Fein, which vehemently opposes a hard border. The parties have shared power under the 1998 settlement, and any rupture over the issue risks seriously upsetting the peace process.

Britain says it will not contemplate the return of a hard border but a committee of UK lawmakers has found that this is inconsistent with its plans to leave the EU’s single market and customs union.

Room for any special arrangements for Northern Ireland is further limited as the minority Conservative government relies on the pro-Brexit DUP to prop it up in Westminster.

The DUP has said it will not support any deal that makes the province operate under different rules from the rest of the UK or creates trade barriers between it and its biggest market.

North-South trade has doubled since 1995, but the British economy is 14 times larger than the Irish Republic’s. The Northern Ireland food and drink sector, for instance, relies on Britain for 73 per cent of its sales.

Despite Sheridan’s misgivings, many of his fellow Protestants stand squarely behind the DUP. At the party’s annual conference last month, supporters waving Union Jack flags belted out a rousing rendition of “God Save The Queen.”

“Brexit means Brexit, so we are going out,” William Gibson, a north Belfast businessman, said at the conference. “We are an integral part of the UK and it is most important that we are treated the same way as the rest of the UK.”

The DUP was the only Northern Irish party to campaign for Brexit in last year’s referendum, when 56 per cent of voters in the province went against the national trend by opting to remain in the EU.

Many of the 10 DUP lawmakers who hold the balance of power in London suspect Dublin’s motives. They fear its proposals will boost the case for uniting the two sides of the border, as ultimately sought by their nationalist rivals.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney assured unionists on Friday that his government was only trying to maintain the status quo, “and nothing else”.

A delicate solution

The DUP, which also wants to maintain a soft border but has not spelled out how, has hinted it may withdraw its support for the government if Prime Minister Theresa May gives too much away.

A delicate solution is therefore needed if EU leaders are to agree at a summit on Dec. 14-15 — one described by Dublin as having historic significance for the island — that sufficient progress has been made to move the Brexit talks onto a trade deal, as London wants.

This can be achieved, a report prepared by Belfast’s Queen’s University for the European Parliament found this week, but it added: “This process is entirely dependent not on technical solutions but on political will.”

Sheridan will be watching closely from his farm in the Fermanagh constituency of DUP leader Arlene Foster. Dublin, he says, must hold a firm line. “There can be no turning back the clock.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Clodagh Kilcoyne and by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; additional reporting by Ian Graham in Belfast.

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The horsemeat scandal affecting a growing number of European countries began in Ireland after its food safety authority discovered horsemeat in frozen beef burgers.

The discovery led such major food companies as Tesco and Burger King to drop their Irish producers and Irish investigators to point the finger at Poland as the country of origin for raw materials that contained as much as 75 per cent horse DNA. Poland has disputed the findings.

The decision to ask Irish manufacturers of processed meat products to carry out DNA testing was "a necessary step in order to provide further reassurance to Irish consumers and consumers of Irish food abroad," Ireland’s agriculture department said.

Ireland, which holds the EU presidency, also called a meeting of ministers from European countries affected by the horsemeat scandal.

Irish Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney wants Wednesday’s meeting in Brussels to discuss "whatever steps may be necessary at EU level to comprehensively address this matter", it said.

European Union health commissioner Tonio Borg and ministers from EU countries affected by the horsemeat scandal will attend. The issue will also be on the agenda of the next formal meeting of EU agriculture ministers on Feb. 25, Ireland said.

Concern grew last week when the British unit of frozen foods group Findus began recalling its beef lasagne on advice from its French supplier, Comigel, after tests showed concentrations of horsemeat in a range from 60 to 100 percent.

Comigel said the questionable meat came from Romania.

Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, said on Monday it had found horse DNA exceeding 60 percent in some of its own-brand frozen spaghetti bolognese meals withdrawn from stores last week.

Conspiracy

In Britain, where eating horsemeat is taboo, farm minister Owen Paterson has said he suspects an "international criminal conspiracy" lies behind the affair. The French and British governments have vowed to punish those found responsible.

Adding to concerns are indications that some horsemeat, perfectly edible in itself, may contain a drug known as phenylbutazone, also known as "bute," a common, anti-inflammatory painkiller for sporting horses but banned for animals intended for human consumption.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has said it regards the horsemeat scandal as a labelling issue rather than a health concern.

Romania’s prime minister said on Monday any fraud over horsemeat sold as beef had not happened in his country and he was angered by suggestions it might have been.

"From all the data we have at the moment, there is no breach of European rules committed by companies from Romania or on Romanian territory," Victor Ponta told a news conference. "I am very angry, to be honest."

An initial French investigation revealed that the horsemeat ended up in Comigel’s Luxembourg factory, supplied by a French firm, and that a Dutch and Cypriot trader had also been involved. However, the meat originally came from a Romanian abattoir.

At the planned EU meeting, France wants to raise the question of origin labelling for meat in processed products, French farm minister Stephane Le Foll said on Monday.

French government inspectors are currently going through the sales records of Comigel to see if any products liable to contain mislabelled horsemeat are still on the market despite the withdrawal of products by six retail chains.

— Adrian Croft is a U.K. reporter for Reuters; Padraic Halpin is a Reuters correspondent in Dublin.

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