Opinion: What should Dublin do if UK plays hardball on NI protocol?

Ronan McCrea - Government must remember protocol is only a means to an end not an end in itself says Professor Ronan McCrea (UCL Laws). In 2007, when Nancy Pelosi was in her first stint as House Speaker, I worked on a campaign an NGO was running in relation to a Bill then before Congress. The NGO had numerous concerns about the legislation and, through a mix of networking and luck, a senior figure in the organisation managed to wangle a 10-minute meeting with the Speaker. This caused an anguished debate among staff. Some experienced negotiators pushed to ask for one and only one thing but in the end couldn't agree which objectives to let fall by the wayside. At the meeting, I was later told, Pelosi's eyes glazed over when she was presented with a laundry list of desires and she ultimately offered no support. The Irish Government was too canny to make a similar mistake in relation to Brexit.