LEELA VARGHE: There's a lot
to love about Ireland -
the beautiful countryside,
Irish dancing, the accent...
Hi, I'm Niall Horan.
..leprechauns...
OK, they're not real.
Hey!
But they're cool.
But those aren't the reasons
why Ireland is
in the news at the moment.
Right now, the Emerald Isle is making
headlines because of Brexit.
You know, the UK's plan
to exit the European Union?
But we'll get to that in a bit.
First,
let's really get to know Ireland.
Ireland is this bit,
and this is Northern Ireland.
Whilst it's on
the same island as Ireland
and half its name is Ireland,
it's actually not a part of Ireland.
It's a part of the United Kingdom.
Time for some history.
The first people in Ireland
were the Celts,
but after the Celts came
a whole lot of people
who fought for control of Ireland.
Eventually,
it came under English rule.
Lots of Irish
people weren't happy about that,
especially seeing as English rulers
were Protestant,
a type of Christian religion,
while most of the Irish
were Catholic,
a different sort of
Christian religion.
There was a lot of fighting
over a long time -
a really long time.
Eventually, the southern part
of Ireland broke away from the UK
and became the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland, however,
chose to remain with
the United Kingdom.
But the troubles didn't end there.
In fact, The Troubles is the name
given to the decades of violence
that went on in Northern Ireland
right up until the '90s.
Groups that were loyal to the UK
fought with groups
that wanted to leave,
including one called
the Irish Republican Army,
who fought UK soldiers
and carried out bombings.
Innocent people were killed
on both sides.
But eventually,
in 1998 on Good Friday,
the Republicans and
the Unionists came together
and agreed to stop fighting.
Since then,
things have been pretty peaceful.
But some are worried that peace
will be threatened by Brexit.
Yep, back to that.
You see, at the moment,
both the UK and Ireland are
a part of the European Union.
Because of that, people and things
can go across the border
without anyone stopping you
or checking your passport,
so it's basically
like there's no border.
But that could change after Brexit
because there'll be different trade
and immigration laws.
There might need to be border guards
and passport checks
for people and goods travelling
between the UK and Ireland.
That's something most people
in the UK and Ireland want to avoid.
Aside from making it much harder
for people who live and work
around here,
there are worries it'll remind people
of the bad old days
when there were armed guards
and violence on the Irish border
and maybe even stir up old tensions.
So, what's the answer?
Well, one possible solution
would be for the UK
to give Northern Ireland
its own special trade rules
that are more similar to the EU's,
so there'd be no need to check people
and goods at the border.
Instead, they'd be checked
when they cross the Irish Sea.
But some people don't like the idea
of Northern Ireland
being treated differently
to the rest of the UK,
and Northern Irish politicians
haven't supported the plan.
It's a really tricky problem
to solve.
In fact, it's one of
the main reasons why Brexit
still hasn't happened.
The deadline has already
been extended to October 31st,
this week.
And while the British prime minister
wants it to go ahead
as soon as possible,
he's had to ask the EU
for an extension...on the extension.
Now he wants to call an election,
so, basically, no-one knows
what's going to happen.
And people here in Northern Ireland
and the rest of the UK
have some uncertain times ahead.
