With over two years gone since the British people decided to leave the EU, and only seven months before the deadline imposed for that departure, the clock is ticking on achieving an agreed exit strategy.

Most Irish people have long since switched off from the endless debate on Brexit, but the decisions taken by and with our closest neighbour will have a huge impact. It is our largest trading partner and we share our only land border with it.

It’s impossible to say what will happen, but there’s no fun in not trying. And, unfortunately, whatever Irish people might want, there won’t be a second referendum – at least not in time to prevent the UK leaving the EU. Quite simply, neither Theresa May nor Jeremy Corbyn are in favour of it, and without a leading politician as a figurehead for the campaign, it won’t happen anytime soon.

Michel Barnier’s assertion that negotiations will be constant from here on in provides some hope. Just keep a steady supply of sandwiches

Even if a vote were called, its outcome would be hard to predict. The very prospect of “Brexit 2” has been enough to see Nigel Farage back on the pitch. Large sections of the print media will relentlessly peddle an anti-Brussels message, and large sections of the Tory parliamentary party in particular are willing to voice some rather strange notions about how events are playing out.

Sandwich ingredients

The bizarre case of the British Sandwich Association is a case in point. A couple of weeks ago, it entered the Brexit debate. Its director, Jim Winship said on Newsnight that a hard Brexit could hamper the importation of sandwich ingredients, listing tomatoes from Spain as an example.

Conservative MP Marcus Fysh debated the issue with him, and accused him of fearmongering.

Fysh then took to Twitter to cast doubt on the motives of the British Sandwich Association. “A core member of the British Sandwich Association is Greencore, whose CEO is the Irish foreign minister’s brother,” he tweeted.

The man he is referring to is, of course, Patrick Coveney, Simon’s brother.

As conspiracy theories go, it’s a doozie. Greencore is the largest maker of sandwiches in the UK. Could the honourable member for Yeovil be, in fact, a Fyshmonger?

So there will be a Brexit, and the hope is that some form of agreement is cobbled together. Michel Barnier’s assertion that negotiations will be constant from here on in provides some hope. Just keep a steady supply of sandwiches.