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Drama on 4

The Crossing

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

It's 2019 and following the UK's exit from the EU, the prime minister is pressurised to seal the nation's frontiers, including the land border shared with the Irish Republic. Immigration and customs posts reappear for the first time since the Good Friday Agreement. At the point where inland waterways north and south meet, security services search boats and inspect passports. Cross border cooperation is a thing of the past.

Conor Glynn, 22, helps his parents run river cruises along the river Shannon and into Lough Erne. But Conor will soon be forced to move away for work, because the family business has fallen victim to political circumstance.

Conor, realising the financial predicament his parents will be in, decides to take one crazy but lucrative risk. He agrees to carry an unusual cargo across the river border and into the UK. Conor is stopped and searched by border security. They find three Eastern European migrants hiding on his boat. Conor is arrested. He faces a jail sentence.

The PM arrives in Ulster to inspect new border facilities and has a secret meeting with the Irish Taoiseach. The Taoiseach is alarmed at how rapidly border security has been restored to its Troubles-era level. Even locals have to queue up and show their passports. In protest, his coalition partners in Dublin, Sinn Féin, are joining their Stormont colleagues in boycotting all Anglo-Irish institutions that grew out of the Good Friday Agreement. The peace process is in danger. Show less

Contributors

Prime Minister:
Rebecca Saire
The Taoiseach:
Sean Campion
James Trevelyan:
Nick Dunning
Avril Murray:
Sarah Greene
Conor Glynn:
Gavin Drea
Marian Glynn:
Eleanor Methven
Border Officer:
BJ Hogg

Genres

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