Ms Susan McKay:

I am a former journalist and wrote extensively during the Troubles and the peace process about the Border region. It is a region that I know well in terms of the suffering it has experienced in every way during both during and since the conflict, including economically. When I recently wrote about Brexit for a British magazine, I discovered that, as Mr. Sheridan mentioned, there was a great deal of apprehension, with many saying they did not know what to expect but that they feared it would not be good. That fear appears to be well grounded.

I run the Glens Centre, a small community arts centre in Manorhamilton, a small town with a large but underpopulated rural hinterland that extends into counties Donegal, Fermanagh and Cavan. Our belief in the Glens Centre, one that is shared by most arts and cultural organisations around the country, is that culture and the arts enable transformations and allow people to translate hard feelings into ones that are more fluid. They enable people to contemplate other ways of seeing things. I will give a simple example in the context of the peace process. Consider the role played by Professor Frank McGuinness' "Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme". It created all kinds of cross-Border relationships that were helpful to the peace process. The Glens Centre has just received a significant grant from the International Fund for Ireland to undertake a cross-community, cross-Border programme using the arts and culture to build relationships. We must count on being able to move back and forth across the Border to set up these relationships.

I wish to discuss the nature of the Border. Mr. Sheridan referred to the currency issue. In the journey I made this morning from the west of the Border region to the east to attend this hearing, I crossed the Border so many times that I ended up accidentally paying for my diesel in the Republic with sterling because I was not sure anymore of where I was. It is funny in a way now, but it will not be funny if each of these crossings becomes impossible because it is a non-approved road or difficult because of traffic jams at Border crossings. Whatever else happens, Brexit will make cross-Border relationships - day-to-day relationships, as well as those related to the bigger picture - more problematic.

Mr. Sheridan referred to farmers telling him that the Border was no longer thought about. The fear that used to prevail along the Border on all sides is largely gone, but old habits of wariness still remain in communities in the North and the Republic.

The Border on all sides has now largely gone, but old habits of wariness still exist in both communities in the North and both communities in the Republic. Manorhamilton, for example, is a town with a significant Protestant minority. We are facing a situation where there may be polarisation and a reversion to separatist outlooks, neither of which are helpful to the peace process. We may be facing into a period which will lay waste carefully nurtured relationships as well as risking massive waste of the many EU, American, Irish and British funds that have gone into trying to nurture cross-Border relationships in a constructive way. We welcome, of course, the assurance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that it will step in if, as seems inevitable, peace funding is lost in the Border region, but I wonder how realistic that is in light of recent swingeing cuts to the community and voluntary sector and to arts organisations in the Republic as well as in the North. Manorhamilton is a very poor town. It is a very typical Border town and one only has to look at it to see the damage that has been done to the Border area. There are a lot of ruins, a lot of failed businesses, a lot of subsistence and a lot of emigration. One sees schoolchildren in the town but one does not see young people in the 20 to 30 age group because they have simply gone and not come back. There is a lot of dependence on EU grants and a lot of neglect. The upside of that, however, is that artists have moved into the area because they can afford to do so, and there are little houses available for prices not seen in most other parts of the country. This is definitely a positive development, but it is important that is maintained and nurtured. Since moving into my present role I have been quite astonished by how little artists live on. We cannot charge high prices in The Glens Centre because people simply do not have the money to pay high ticket prices, and we are very typical of Border arts organisations in this respect. We get funding from the Arts Council and from Leitrim County Council and we recently got money from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, for which we were very grateful, to do some restoration work on our building. The fact remains, however, that we are giving subsistence levels of payment to some surprisingly well-known Irish artists. With talk of further cuts, and Brexit on top of that, we could be looking at quite a difficult situation for people. The Government needs to be very aware of this in the coming period.