Back in the recent unpleasantness, when I were but a young lad, crossing the border was something of an experience: on the main roads you passed through considerable fortifications, large numbers of kids with guns, and identity checks. On the minor routes, you passed over a lovely little road marking where the Sappers would blow up the roadway if things got any messier.

Then, happily, peace broke out, choirs of heavenly money-grabbing bastards took power, and all was well. Nice, new roads have been built, generally paid for by the suddenly rich south. And the fortifications, watchtowers, identity checks and demolition markings have all gone.

But they may well be on the way back; not in the name of fighting a ‘war’ that people were at least working towards ending, but in the name of things that can have no end. So they’ll be permanent.

Travellers between the Irish Republic and Britain will need a passport when schemes launched by the two governments come into force.

Irish officials have been asked to work on ending an agreement permitting free movement between the two jurisdictions.

Of course, such checks have been going on, quietly, for a while now. Get a bus from north to south and you’ll likely be stopped and have ihre papieren inspected by a couple of lads from southern Customs, in a fairly casual way (unless, of course, you happen to look foreign. We’re a very enlightened island, you see…)

I suspect electronics and more formal checks would be something more of an inconvenience, and thusly more of an annoyance. And more of a slide back to the Bad Old Days…