Pettigo - Susan McKay

In last year’s referendum, a majority of Northern Irish citizens voted against Brexit. For the most part, unionists were for it, nationalists and republicans against. Overall, 56 per cent voted to remain in the EU. Along the border with the Republic of Ireland, that figure rose to 65 per cent, though many in these parts did not cast their vote. ‘I didn’t understand it,’ one local man, Mervyn Johnston, told me. On the map, the village of Pettigo, where Johnston lives, is all but obliterated by the strong red line of the border as it staggers drunkenly across the country. At the centre of the village, most of which lies in Co. Donegal in the Republic, is a statue that Johnston says is known as ‘the Quiet Man’. A stone figure in a trench coat and peaked cap makes as if to creep towards the old stone bridge over the fast-flowing River Termon. A plaque explains that it is dedicated to the proud memory of four young men who died there ‘fighting against British forces’ in 1922. ‘There’s a right crowd about it on Easter Sunday,’ Johnston said.