Brexit is the nickname for "British exit" from the EU. The U.K. had been a member of first the Common Market, then the European Community and finally the European Union since 1973. The situation changed on June 23, 2016, when U.K. voters voted to leave the EU in a referendum. A large part the pro-Brexit voters were older, working-class residents of England's countryside. The vote revived the old North/South divide in England and created a gap between younger and older generations. It split Wales along a cultural and linguistic line between the north west, welsh-speaking part and the south east, English-speaking part, while Northern Ireland and Scotland gave large majorities to the yes vote, but were outnumbered by English brexiters. This fuelled further resentment in Scotland, as the Scots had voted to remain in the UK in a referendum on independence two years before, in order to avoid being excluded from the EU. Yet the most serious short term concern was the consequences on the future of the relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as the two economies are very much interwoven and the recreation of a hard border could kill the peace achieved in 1998 in the North. This paper will seek to examine why the Border is so contentious an issue in British-Irish relations and in North-South Irish relations and how old symbols interfere with present day economic realities.