Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 23 May 1984

Vol. 350 No. 9

Adjournment Debate. - Border Incursions.

Mr. Kirk

I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity of dealing with this matter which is of much concern to the people in the area in question.

Incursions by the British Army have been taking place along the Border for a number of years. The excuses offered for this from time to time have ranged from map-reading errors to mistaking the areas and so on, but those excuses have grown thin with the passage of time. The roads are more than adequately marked so that even one not familiar with the area would know immediately where the Border was. Therefore, the excuse that the army might not know where the Border is is not acceptable. The presence of the British Army in Crossmaglen and in other places in the North has been resented bitterly by the people living in those areas. The arrogance, the truculence and the intimidation in which the army engage have alienated many of the communities in the North. In Crossmaglen the GAA grounds have been occupied by the British Army since the early seventies. The people who live in that area can think of no possibility of peace or quiet until such time as the army have removed themselves totally from the area.

To deal with the subject of this debate, the incursion at Ballybinaby last weekend, what happened was that five or six British soldiers entered a farmyard on this side of the Border. Almost immediately two of the group proceeded to break into the adjoining dwelling house. Fortunately there were present in the house two able-bodied members of the family who were able physically to repel the soldiers from the house. However, the family's disabled mother was in the house and because of what happened she had to receive spiritual and medical attention immediately afterwards.

Having removed the soldiers from the dwelling house, a fracas ensued in the farmyard during which the people in question were threatened by the soldiers that they would be shot. Just before then a Garda patrol car entered the area but the gardaí did not take any direct part in the incident. The people I am referring to considered there was an obligation on them at least to point out to the soldiers that they were on this side of the Border and that they should be arrested and taken to the barracks at Dundalk.

There is a great deal of resentment because of the soldiers making these incursions not being arrested, taken before the courts and subjected to the law of the land just as any other citizen would be. Eventually the soldiers withdrew across the Border, but the seriousness of the incident, and it was not an isolated incident, cannot be overstated. The danger to the people who live in this relatively remote part of County Louth is obvious to anyone who knows the area. The fact of an old lady who was disabled and ill having to seek medical and spiritual attention because of an incident at her home is ample evidence of the seriousness of what took place on this occasion.

There was a further incursion on Monday morning last when a British Army helicopter landed soldiers on this side of the Border. Obviously, they were part of a search party. It is reprehensible that British Army helicopters seem to be free to land in fields on this side of the Border and that the British can send search parties into part of this jurisdiction. The Minister must realise the seriousness of the situation and must apply himself to it immediately.

There has been an increase in the incidence of cross-Border incursions in recent times. Naturally, this is a cause of much concern to people living in remote Border areas, especially those who are old or live alone. They fear for their lives. Some people will ask what we can do about the matter, but I put it to the Minister that the Garda must be directed to arrest British soldiers responsible for these incursions. They must be subjected to the laws of the land.

These two incidents must be taken in conjunction with what happened in Carlingford Lough last weekend when a member of the Dundalk Yachting Club was apprehended. I understand that the yacht in question was boarded and that the people present were intimidated. There is great resentment in the Carlingford area because of that incident. Rubber dinghies operate from the British vessel stationed in the lough. They are interfering with cargo ships entering Carlingford Lough. There have been many incidents in the area which have not come to public notice. It is only when something serious such as what occurred last Sunday take place that these minor incidents come to light.

In the Dáil we seem very far removed from areas around Ballybinaby but this is where the power of the land lies and where the Government must assert their authority. There is a strong argument to be made for putting a protection vessel into Carlingford Lough to assert our claim to our territorial waters.

Perhaps the Minister might deal with the suggestions I have made when replying. I have tried to be positive and constructive but we cannot overlook the realities. People living in the area must be protected. They are entitled to live in reasonable safety with confidence that they will not be apprehended or intimidated in any way. The protection vessel could protect the cargo ships which are interfered with coming into Greenore Port. Yachts should be able to come and go freely on their way to Skerries and elsewhere.

There is no point pretending the Garda are not aware of these incursions. They are well aware of them. The British soldiers should be arrested, taken to the barracks and subjected to the law of the land as it applies at present.

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. P. Barry)

I presume the Chair would rule me out of order if I debated the Carlingford Lough incident which is not the subject of the question. That had a full airing yesterday at Question Time. Either Deputy Kirk or Deputy O'Hanlon said yesterday that the officers who boarded the yacht attempted to jam or jammed the radio on the yacht. We have had no complaint about that from the owner of the yacht. If the Deputy or the owner can give me evidence of that I will take the matter up again with them.

In regard to the subject matter of the question, the facts as reported to me by the Garda authorities are that on Monday, 21 May, a British Army helicopter landed at a point 50 metres south of the Border near Ballybinaby, County Louth. A party of six to eight soldiers alighted and the pilot took off. A short while later, having apparently realised his error, the pilot returned and picked up the military personnel.

This incursion followed an incident just two days before, on Saturday, 19 May, in the same area. On that occasion an incursion by a British Army foot patrol occurred after a shooting incident on the Northern side of the Border at Cornonagh, County Armagh.

I take a grave view of both these incursions. On the same day as the incursion of Saturday, 19 May, my Department raised the matter with the British authorities. On the following Monday, having received a full report by the Garda authorities, my Department raised the matter more formally, protesting the incursion and stressing to the British authorities that the incursion was entirely unacceptable.

On Monday, 21 May, we received reports of a second incursion in the Ballybinaby area, involving the landing of a helicopter. My Department took up this incident immediately with the British authorities.

We have pressed the British authorities for an explanation of these incidents and are awaiting their reply. For their part, the British authorities have assured us that they are making urgent investigations into how these incidents happened despite the standing instructions forbidding the Northern security forces to operate south of the Border.

Deputy Kirk and other have referred to the frequency of incursions by British troops in recent weeks and to the problem of ensuring that such incidents are not repeated. This problem is a serious one and I assure the House that the Government are not sparing any effort to resolve it. The Government take action every time an incursion is reported. Every time a member of the Northern security forces crosses the Border a formal protest is made to the British Government, and action by them is sought in order to prevent a recurrence. Our efforts are not limited to official protests. The British Government are aware of our views at high political level and I have sought to bring home to British Ministers the serious attitude we take to infringements of our jurisdiction and the importance we attach to the enforcement on their side of the orders which exist forbidding the Northern security forces to operate over the Border.

The facts show that our repeated and determined pressure is achieving results. The records of my Department show that from 1973 to the end of 1982 there were on average over 64 incursions annually. In 1982 there were 49 incursions. In 1983 there were 22 incursions, a reduction of more than a half. Up to today, almost half way through 1984 and including all the recent incidents about which Deputies have complained, there have been 12 incursions. The problem of incursions can be exaggerated, therefore, especially in comparison with previous years and previous Governments.

Of course, as I said in this House yesterday, even one incursion is one too many; and we view any incursion which appears to be deliberate or provocative in any way with special concern. Incursions are simply not acceptable and the British authorities are fully aware of our attitude. It is not true to say, as has been suggested, that the British authorities ignore our protests. If that were true, I shudder to think of how they must have treated our predecessors who presided over far more incursions in their period of office.

Let me say also that we are conscious of the security problems which the British authorities have to cope with, the campaign of deliberate murder, destruction and intimidation which besets Northern Ireland and has reared its ugly head here in the South also. We know that the Border is difficult to patrol, that the line is frequently unclear and that accidental incursions can occur. They have occurred occasionally on our side also. Furthermore, we can understand the reluctance of men whose colleagues have been murdered, and who are themselves subject to constant threat of death, to observe the Border line scrupulously when they are in search of those who commit these violent deeds. This does not make any incursions tolerable. There are well-established methods for co-operation on cross-Border security and we expect and demand that these methods be adhered to.

But, in saying this, we would lack all human feeling if we were not to express sympathy to the families of those men who died and to the men who were brutally injured in last weekend's attacks in the Border areas. I take this opportunity to do so. Nor should we overlook the motives of those responsible for these attacks. Their object is to whip up sectarian hatred and bitterness which all of us in this House deplore. Their object is to frustrate our efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland and our efforts to find a democratic, political solution.

We have listened tonight and yesterday in the Dáil, and on several other occasions recently, to complaints about incursions and to attacks on the Government for failing to prevent them.

The Opposition Deputies do not seem to be aware of the record of their own party when it was last in power. More seriously, I have not heard a word from these Deputies about the violent attacks which have prompted the recent activity by the Northern security forces in some Border areas. I would have welcomed a word from the Deputies opposite about the four murders last weekend which lie in the background to the recent incursions. I have not heard any. I know it was not their intention to omit any such mention, or to omit an expression of sympathy to those who are bereaved and injured. But these events, like the incursions Deputies are rightly complaining of, occurred near the Border also, and deserve attention in any examination of the causes of these incidents and of the Government's efforts to ensure that they will not recur.

The Dáil adjourned at 11.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 24 May 1984.