With Troubles in mind, Irish concern grows over British stance on border

FILE PHOTO: A sign for 'No border' is seen on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland in Jonesborough, Northern Ireland December 10, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

DUBLIN (Reuters) - As Britain's exit from the European Union grows closer with no agreement reached on the Irish border, many in Ireland fear that pro-Brexit British politicians have forgotten the bombs and bullets of three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland and fail to grasp how high the stakes are for the entire island.

London, Dublin and Brussels want to avoid the return of a "hard" border the British-run province and Ireland that existed before a 1998 peace accord brought a tenuous end to "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland - sectarian violence that cost some 3,600 lives, many of them civilians.