Cillian Murphy is just one Irish person expressing his anger about Brexit.Getty Images

Cillian Murphy discusses Brexit as Irish people offer one Brexiteer a history lesson on Twitter

Cillian Murphy, who currently stars in the BBC drama ‘Peaky Blinders,’ says that Ireland cannot be held “ransom” in the face of Brexit.

Read More: Direct rule would be imposed on Northern Ireland in no-deal Brexit

Murphy was speaking with Lanre Bakare of The Guardian ahead of the latest season of Peaky Blinders, in which Murphy stars as Birmingham gangster Tommy Shelby.

Murphy, a native of Co Cork, lived in London for 15 years before returning to live in Ireland in 2015. While he says his move back to Dublin wasn’t triggered by Brexit, he is now happy to be living on the “very liberal island that is an outlier.”

On the matter of Brexit, interviewer Lanre Bakare notes Murphy’s “anger” on the topic. 

Murphy says: “The Good Friday agreement was predicated on there not being a border, and to think that you can hold Ireland to ransom; you can’t…” 

“Listen," he continues after a thoughtful pause, "if you and I are in a club, and there are 28 members of the club, and I decided to leave, why would I get preferential treatment? Doesn’t make any sense.” 

“And if Ireland is a member of that club, and me leaving undermines their whole set-up and the peace they have, it doesn’t make any sense, and it’s not equitable or fair, and it’s because the whole thing was sold on a bunch of misinformation.”

Murphy adds: “It was a binary choice. There’s no nuance; you can’t put any of that into a referendum. You can say, ‘Yes, we’ll leave the EU,’ but no one knew how.”

Read More: These pictures highlight just how difficult a Brexit hard border would be

The state of Brexit

Murphy’s comments on Brexit come only weeks after Tory Party leader Boris Johnson became the new Prime Minister of the UK after Theresa May’s resignation amid the Brexit stalemate. 

As Prime Minister, Johnson has vowed to “deliver” Brexit for the United Kingdom on October 31, the newly agreed-upon exit date after two previous delays this year.

The matter of the backstop, the mechanism built into the current Withdrawal Agreement that seeks to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, remains a sticking point. Johnson wants to do away with the backstop, which he has slammed as “undemocratic," while European Union leaders insist that the Withdrawal Agreement cannot be opened for renegotiation.

Prime Minister Johnson has not shied away from the prospect of exiting the EU without a deal.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Getty Images)

Read More: Why Britain still can’t treat Ireland as an equal

No deal? So what?

Some Brexiteers, including British journalist Andrew Lilico, are playing the victim in the face of a potential no-deal Brexit.

On August 6, Lilico kicked off a Twitter storm when he tweeted:

Diarmuid Scully, a doctor political science at the University of Limerick, responded:

To which Lilico brazenly replied:

Luckily for Lilico, plenty of people were happy to provide some examples:

The following day, Lilico followed up with this response, evidently unimpressed with the evidence: