Border Call

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Drama on 4: Border Call

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Border Call

It's 2027. The secretary of state for Northern Ireland faces calls for a border poll.

It's 2027. The pressure is on the secretary of state for Northern Ireland to hold a poll on the Irish border question. But what exactly should the question be?

We are on the cusp of major changes in the three-way relationship between Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland. In this taut political drama, Hugh Costello looks into his crystal ball and imagines a future scenario.

The year is 2027.  Helen Graham is the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the UK government. Recent elections to the Stormont Assembly have confirmed Sinn Fein as the largest party. Now they and their counterparts in the Republic, senior partners in a ruling coalition since the general election of 2025, have renewed their calls for a referendum, or Border Poll, on unification, to be held on both sides of the border. 

Under the Good Friday Agreement, the power to call such a poll in NI lies with the Secretary of State, if she judges that “it appears likely that a majority of the people would vote in favour of a united Ireland.” 

Helen was raised in Manchester by an English father and Irish mother. This is her first Cabinet position, and it’s giving her sleepless nights. Not least because the Prime Minister is demanding a debrief. At the suggestion of her resourceful PPS, Belfast native Emily Cooke, she embarks on a fact-finding mission and charm offensive.  But while appearing as a guest on a radio phone-in show in Dublin, a caller raises a traumatic event in Helen's family's past that changes the future for both her and the island of Ireland....

Cast:
Helen Graham            Jane Slavin
Emily Cooke               Bronagh Waugh
Andrew                       Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Jennifer/Maureen       Frances Tomelty
Moriarty/Finnerty       Stephen Hogan

Written by Hugh Costello
Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan

A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4

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