Then there was the question of West Belfast, which was actually part of the former republic, its border marked out by a green-and-orange line that went along the ground and over walls and up buildings, where West Belfast Garda stood on one side and East Ulster Constabulary on the other.
The Belgians, no strangers to drawing lines on maps, had been very eager to help, if only to spread the confusion of multiple internal jurisdictions and with them the awkward embarrassment of explaining to one’s European colleagues why a treaty with Japan has to be debated by local politicians in Wallonia.