Perhaps the most vexing local issue for Brexit—and the most visible—is the question of placing a hard border on the frontier of Northern Ireland, a part of the UK that has in recent years had a relatively soft border with the neighboring Republic of Ireland. It's a flashpoint hearkening back to a violent and sad history for a region that as recently as the 1990s was riven by sectarian conflict between mostly Protestant Unionists, who wanted to keep Northern Ireland as part of the UK, and mostly Catholic supporters of uniting the provinces with the Republic of Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement which largely halted the conflict in 1998 succeeded in great part because the hard border between Northern Ireland and the republic softened, deferring to the European Union’s agreements on free movement of goods and labor. While there are broader issues related to labor and commerce under debate for Brexit, the future of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is a major sticking point, not only for political issues but the robust equipment manufacturing sector that has taken root in Northern Ireland in recent decades.