The EU have sold the ROI down the river by agreeing to put Varadkars ridiculous backstop into the withdrawal agreement. Aided and abetted by Theresa May's incompetence and Philip Hammonds duplicity the EU have put the UK in an impossible situation where NI could be split from the rest of the UK. Add to that the 'sequencing' arrangement May agreed to whereby the negotiations are phased: 1. withdrawal agreement and pony up the cash (without knowing what we're getting for that cash), 2. terms of the future relationship, trade deal etc.
The problem with this is that once the withdrawal agreement (with backstop) is passed, the cash is ponied up, what incentive is there for the EU to give us a reasonable trade deal or future relationship, in short, they can offer us an appalling trade deal and having already paid the cash and signed up to a legally binding backstop, the UK or NI or both are tied forever to a customs union if a trade deal is not agreed, unable to negotiate deals with other countries. The EU know this full well and are consequently milking the backstop for all it's worth.
Thank Christ Boris came along when he did and had the balls to say to Barnier and Juncker, actually mateys, you can f**k right off.
It's ridiculous to suggest the UK has offered no workable alternatives to the backstop, of course they have, but the EU are playing hardball, and in the process abandoning the Republic of Ireland.
Look, Europe will survive a hard Brexit although northern Europe will be plunged into a recession (Germany may already be there), the UK will survive, short term will be painful but medium term we'll be fine.
As for the ROI a hard Brexit will be nothing short of catastrophic. I'm not sure of their exact trade figures but I'm sure it's something like 50% of exports are to the UK, of the remainder, a huge percentage transits via the UK. They import 90% of their electricity from the UK and 90% of their gas from the UK. Egged on by the EU, Varadkar has the audacity to try and hold the UK to ransom, how dare he.
After the financial crash the UK bailed out the ROI, we didn't have to, and the EU didn't offer to, but we did.
Having egged on the pipsqeak Varadkar to come on all butch with his backstop s**t, if we're forced into a hard Brexit the EU will abandon the ROI as they have done before, and are doing now.
Anyway, you still haven't answered by question.