Going Against the Grain on the Border of Europe

Mark Sugrue @marksugruek has been highlighting some of the problems EU will have safeguarding itself from intrusions from outside on the zone of contact between brexited UK and the rest of Europe. Making the European border tight here is going to need a lot of costly effort from both sides. Thread by @marksugruek : "Some fun @BorderIrish crossings between Ireland and the UK. Would love to see 'technology' solve this..."

After all, what is going to keep those grabby British artefact hunters  with their knowledge-thieving ways and metal detectors from crawling across the border under the cover of darkness and stealing bits of our common European archaeological heritage?

These anomalies are caused by the layout of the landscape in centuries preceding 1922. Probably the majority are caused by the modern border being drawn along old parish and estate boundaries, which need not relate to post-medieval and modern changes in road systems and property ownership. This in turn invites reflection on the meaning of 'borders' and strictly-defined political units that cannot cut apart communities, the links between which - sometimes going back to centuries past - cut across lines on maps.