This episode of Port Stories is the edited recording of a Zoom-based webinar held on the 21st of January, 2021. The chair and sound engineer is Dr James L. Smith, postdoctoral research fellow on the Ports, Past and Present project. The event explored the complexities of Brexit for the coastal  communities spanning the Irish Sea Basin. What coastal connections will  strengthen and wane in 2021 and beyond, and what initiatives and stories sustain coastal communities? What aspects of coastal connection endure, and what is in flux from a social, infrastructural and political perspective? Speakers included Jonathan Evershed, University College Cork; Gráinne Ní Aodha, Journalist for TheJournal.ie; Rhys Jones, Aberystwyth University; and Ciarán O' Driscoll, Policy and Brexit Research Officer at European Movement Ireland.

An introductory podcast for the Port Stories series of the Ports, Past and Present project. In this episode, project manager Aoife Dowling and postdoctoral fellows James Smith and Jonathan Evershed discuss their motivations for joining the project and why they thing its topic is important and timely.