When Irish Boundary Commission proposals for a new, final border line in Ireland are leaked to the press in late 1925, the British and Irish governments prepare to take drastic action to have the Commission’s report ‘burned or buried’. Why?

Across five dramatic episodes, Ophelia Byrne follows a line on the map into an improbable world of high statecraft, split communities, broken promises and many thousands of lives changed forever. Through original testimonies, secret letters and classified police reports, she uncovers what really happened when the Irish Boundary Commission set out to redraw the border in Ireland almost a century ago. Then a chance discovery in the archives makes Ophelia begin to question the entire Boundary Commission process and mission. As questions over the future of the border climb up today's political agenda, she realises this could be a story which matters more now than ever before.

Episode Five: The End of the Affair

A political storm is unleashed when proposals for the new partition line are leaked to the press. Looking back on the final chapter of the Boundary Commission story, Ophelia asks what it all means now

Presenter: Ophelia Byrne

Producers: Conor Garrett & Ophelia Byrne

Exec Editor: Andy Martin

Documents reproduced with the kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI).
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