My Research Process
When we were first given this assignment, I was concerned. I have never been very good at keeping up with the news and I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write about. So I quickly got to work searching for a topic. Among some options that I were considering were Kenya's avocado sales, flooding in Venice, and of course, the affects of Brexit. While the first two topics were interesting, I was worried that I would not be able to find a sufficient amount of information about them to create an argument. I decided on Brexit because I found the complexity of it to be very interesting. I also knew that I would be able to find plenty of information on it because I knew that it was creating major changes in the United Kingdom, even though I did not know what specific issues were arising.
As I started looking into Brexit more, I was not sure what aspect of it I should focus on. As I explained to a friend my dilemma of not being able to focus on a more specific part of Brexit, she suggested looking into how Northern Ireland is going to be affected. I knew she had relatives in Northern Ireland, but she explained to me that she had heard that Brexit was creating a lot of issues for them. After talking to her about it for a bit, I decided that I would focus on how Brexit was going to affect Northern Ireland's economy.
While doing my research, I was not surprised to find out that Brexit's possible affects on Northern Ireland's economy are complicated. However, I was surprised to find out that the issue really boiled down to how different types of Brexit would affect the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Finding this information and researching it more helped me to boil down my research question and create my thesis that says the most best outcome for Northern Ireland is for a soft Brexit to occur, allowing Northern Ireland to keep the soft border with Ireland, but also allowing the opportunity for a united Ireland. Another thing that I found surprising is the political parties' drastically different views on how Northern Ireland should handle Brexit (McDermott). It seems obvious now that different political parties would have different views, but it was not something I considered when I first started researching.
Brexit is not officially scheduled to take place until March 29, 2019. There is still a lot of uncertainty about many aspects of Brexit, but politicians from the United Kingdom and correspondents from the EU are constantly working to find the best solutions possible for everyone. In the next two months, the House of Commons must approve of Theresa May's Brexit plans. An Implementation and Withdrawal Bill that more clearly plans out Brexit must also be agreed upon by Parliament (Blitz). When I began this project, I expected to do the project, get my grade, and never worry about this topic again. Now, I am interested in knowing what the final result of Brexit is going to be, and how it is going to affect the lives of not only people in Northern Ireland, but the rest of the UK as well.
Works Cited
Blitz, James, et al. "Brexit timeline: key dates in UK's divorce with EU." The Irish Times, 9 July 2019, www.irishtimes.com
McDermott, Nick. "Who's who in Northern Ireland." The Guardian, Guardian News and Media Limited, www.theguardian.com. Accessed 6 Jan.
2018
McDermott, Nick. "Who's who in Northern Ireland." The Guardian, Guardian News and Media Limited, www.theguardian.com. Accessed 6 Jan.
2018
Header borrowed from Independent- https://www.independent.ie/life/travel/ireland/dragonstone-this-is-northern-irelands-newest-game-of-thrones-location-36015220.html