The Peace Bridge spans the River Foyle in Derry, Northern Ireland.
Photographer: Paul Faith/BloombergThe City of Conflict Where a Brexit Deal Matters Most
Derry, or Londonderry, in Northern Ireland endured three decades of sectarian vIolence. Now it’s on the front lines of Brexit and the pandemic.
Selina Horshi’s 58-room White Horse Hotel sits just off the usually busy A2 highway on the outskirts of Derry in Northern Ireland, a few miles from the border with the Republic of Ireland. It also stands in the middle of what risks turning into a collision of disasters. The city of 90,000 people, which is synonymous with the sectarian conflict that crippled the U.K. province for three decades, is now on the front lines of both Brexit and the Covid-19 crisis.
Nowhere has more at stake than Derry as Britain and the European Union try to thrash out a Brexit trade agreement before the transition period ends on Jan. 1. The fate of the now invisible U.K.-Ireland border and cross-border trade is unclear. In and around Derry, locals frequently live on one side of the border and work, shop, and attend schools on the other. Talks on a deal resume on Monday, with time running short and both sides suggesting there are still big differences.