First they came for our European solidarity, and we did nothing. Then, they came for our late 90s treaties to try impose peace on our once-febrile island, and, again, we did nothing. Then they came - as reported in a Conor Pope article in The Irish Times - for one of our two most popular national tea brands and we said, "What!? You mean we won't have the choice of partisan affiliation between two brands of tea that largely taste identical!? This has to stop!"
We appear to have found our nation's breaking point with regards to our tolerance toward the heinous ramifications of a no-deal Brexit. The possibility of a no-deal Brexit has been hovering for a long-time - initially seeming to be an inevitability with Boris Johnson's appointment as Prime Minister and his decision to prorogue parliament so as to curtail the time available for MPs to debate alternatives. However, over the last few days, thanks to some fairly seismic shake-ups in British politics, including party defections and unanimous opposition support for a bill to prevent a no-deal Brexit is ratified before the proroguing of parliament comes into effect, the possibility of a no-deal seems to have diminished somewhat.
Given how much of an absolute shit-show everything else about this process has been though, that counts for almost nothing and, as such, we should still be countenancing its possibility.
Speaking at a conference at the British Irish Chamber of Commerce on Thursday night, Leo Varadkar said that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, "there will still be plenty of food on shelves but perhaps not all of the same brands."
Conor Pope speculated in The Irish Times as to which foods might be impacted by a disruption to the supply chain between Ireland and Britain and suggested some of the food products most susceptible.
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While Barry's Tea is produced in Ireland, in Cork, Lyons is manufactured in the UK and so any impact to trade-links beween Ireland and the UK could see shelves go empty, with Barry's Tea being the nation's only option.
All of this leads us to a hitherto unsuggested possibility; that the entirety of Brexit has secretly been orchestrated by Barry's Tea with the long-term aim of gaining supremacy in the Irish market. While we have absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is true, equally, I have seen nothing that explicitly disproves it as a possibility. Where uncertainty exists, doubts linger.
H/T: The Irish Times
