I wish to thank the Chair for allowing me to raise this serious and sensitive matter on the Adjournment. I wish to share my time with my colleague, Deputy Kirk, and I understand that the Minister wishes to give some of his time to one of his colleagues. We have agreed to that.
Adjournment Debate. - Occupation of Crossmaglen GAA Grounds.
It is with a certain sense of regret that we have to seek time to raise on the Adjournment the occupation of the GAA grounds at Crossmaglen in 1984, the centenary year of the foundation of the GAA.
Since 1971 the St. Oliver Plunkett Park in Crossmaglen has been occupied by the British Army and since then they have refused to move from the grounds despite all the encouragement of the GAA and various other people who have made representations to the British Army and to the British Government. The fact that GAA grounds are occupied by the British Army is absolutely reprehensible and anyone who is familiar with the circumstances in Crossmaglen will realise there is no need for the British Army to occupy the playing area there.
Since 1971 it has been a history of confiscation, destruction and intimidation of the people in Crossmaglen, the members of Crossmaglen Rangers Club and players from other clubs who participate in matches played there. The British Army moved in with Land Rovers and other army vehicles and they defaced 50 per cent of the playing area. They did that at a time when the maximum damage would be done to the playing grounds. In the process they succeeded in destroying the drainage system in the playing area of the GAA property.
There have been robberies and attempts to burn the Rangers Hall which is in the area adjacent to the playing grounds and there has been continuous intimidation of players during matches. We had the example of one match where the Army moved in with rifles and intimidated one of the players participating in the match. On another occasion a helicopter landed in the middle of the playing grounds while a match was in progress. That this should happen in Ireland to one of the greatest voluntary organisations in the world that has done so much to promote Irish games for the betterment of the culture and general well-being of the youth of the nation is totally deplorable.
Tonight we call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to use his office, his influence and his powers of persuasion on the British Army and on the British Government to remove immediately the occupying forces from the playing grounds of Crossmaglen. Many people see the occupation of the grounds as an attempt to intimidate the people in that south Armagh village. The troubles have gone on in the Six Counties for the past 15 years and Crossmaglen has been in the cockpit of much of those troubles. The British Army consider it is necessary for them to have a base there but I do not believe that. They have no right to be in Crossmaglen, or in any part of the Six Counties. However, they are there and politicians in Dáil Éireann must encourage them at every opportunity to remove themselves from the grounds.
This matter has been raised on many occasions but unfortunately the appeals made have fallen on deaf ears. I hope that in this, the centenary year of the foundation of the GAA, the British Government in a gesture of goodwill to the Irish people will ask the British Army to remove themselves from the grounds in Crossmaglen. It would be a gesture that would do much for the relations between the two Governments and it would be much appreciated by the GAA authorities and by the Crossmaglen Rangers. The British Army should not have been there in the first place but if they remove themselves it would do much to defuse the feeling of resentment with regard to the presence of the army in the village and on the playing grounds.
Crossmaglen Rangers Football Club is a long established club. It has been there virtually since the foundation of the GAA. It is in an area that may not be as well endowed economically as many other parts of the country. The raising of funds to provide the fine premises they have, the hall and the changing facilities does great credit to the committees who have been in charge of the affairs of the club. It is a source of great annoyance to them to find that these facilities cannot be utilised properly and made available to the people of the area. The British Army can drive in at will and knock down entrance gates and boundary walls. Their right to do that can never be questioned. They claim to have a special powers vesting order but there have been many occasions where they have gone beyond the legality of that vesting order. The question of compensation for the damage done has not been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
I do not wish to develop the debate any further as three other Members wish to speak and I shall leave them to cover the various aspects of the matter. I appeal to the Minister tonight to use his good offices to get the British Army out of Crossmaglen as soon as possible.
As a Border Deputy I wish to add my voice to that of my constituency colleague, Deputy Kirk, in deploring the occupation of the Crossmaglen Rangers Football Club. As we all unhappily know, Crossmaglen is an extremely sensitive area. I find it almost impossible to believe that the British should be so insensitive as to occupy the central area for leisure activity such as is the Crossmaglen Rangers Gaelic Football Club. Crossmaglen club has a tremendous history and, in more recent years, more often than not their members have been County Armagh football champions. In an area, where almost everybody in the town and surrounding hinterland has been alienated, it is incredible that the British Authorities do not recognise that fact. I would add my voice to that of Deputy Kirk in urging the Minister for Foreign Affairs to do what I know he has been doing at regular intervals, that is his utmost to get the British Army to vacate those grounds.
I might say also that this is not a new phenomenon, or something that has occurred in the last 20 months during the term of office of the present Government. Crossmaglen Rangers' grounds have been occupied for at least ten years. In those ten years no Irish Government have been successful in their efforts to get the British Army to vacate them. I might allude to the recent statement by Mr. Paddy Buggy, the outgoing President of the GAA, and indeed congratulate him on his great courage in suggesting that the GAA should open their doors for admission to RUC men. That is a tremendous example of political courage. The time is ripe for some kind of reciprocal gesture on the part of the British Authorities. I can think of no better way in which to illustrate some kind of goodwill than by the British Army vacating the Crossmaglen football grounds. I say this with absolute certainty: the British Army, for one reason or another, have alienated everybody in the Crossmaglen area, indeed in the Border area generally. I have no doubt that, through this insensitive action, probably they have driven hundreds of young people into the evil arms of the IRA.
The time is long overdue for the British Government to recognise how insensitive was their occupancy of those grounds and that they should vacate them immediately. I have no doubt that the Minister present has made repeated efforts — he has told me so many times before in private conversations. In this, the centenary year of the GAA, I would urge him to continue his efforts to have those grounds vacated.
This is a very sensitive, serious matter. The fact that there are four people in the House from three different provinces speaking on the subject is a clear indication of the interest taken by eminent and former members of the GAA, in their capacity as players and officials of the association.
The first point with which I should like to deal is that made by Deputy McGahon — I understand he was expressing a personal viewpoint — when he referred to the statement of the outgoing President of the GAA in which, according to Deputy McGahon, he suggested that the association should open its membership to members of the RUC. That would be a matter for the association. The point I should like to make to Deputy McGahon is that when an appropriate climate or opportunity is provided for the association to expand, develop and play their games in an open, free, democratic situation then, and only then, can it be considered appropriate for any member of an alien army to become a member of a national Gaelic, 32-county organisation.
St. Oliver Plunkett Park is the only available recreational area in Crossmaglen in County Armagh. Within the GAA it is one of three county grounds, the primary grounds within the county. These grounds and indeed the clubhouse and social centre on those grounds were built by the members themselves and the facilities there were provided without any Government or local authority aid. Since 1971 the British Army have occupied a number of areas of the property and have caused considerable damage thereto. In recent years a number of small areas have been returned to the club but at present two portions of the property are still retained by the British Army. The right of way — taken under a requisition order in 1976 — and also a corner of the field, now enclosed within the Army base, has meant that the loss of both those areas has resulted in serious disruption for the club and its members. The right of way, while unspecified in width, was indicated on a map accompanying the requisition order, to include one of the two entrances to St. Oliver Plunkett Park and extending to the rere of the Army base. However, without amending the requisition order, the right of way has been extended by the British Army to include both entrances to the park and covers all of the access to the hall and playingfield. Each time the club committee have erected gates on either of the entrances to enclose the property the British Army have removed those gates and, on a number of occasions, parts of the boundary wall. Indeed recently they removed part of that wall between both the entrances. As a consequence the entire area has been reduced virtually to a commons, a roaming area for stray animals and so on. No serious repairs can be carried out and no major improvements undertaken on the grounds or property while the present situation obtains.
Successive Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland have stated that they have no wish or intention to disrupt the satisfactory running of this club. Mr. Roy Mason, MP, when Secretary of State, assured the GAA that the right of way would be used only for emergencies, for example, when the base would be under attack, which has not as yet happened in Crossmaglen. Mr. Humphrey Atkins, MP, when Secretary of State, informed the GAA that the right of way was required to enable large lorries carrying building materials to get to the rere of the base.
For the sake of clarity I should say I will be calling on the Minister at 10.53 p.m.
The building work on the Army base has been concluded since 1975. Therefore there is no reason whatsoever that this right of way should be required by the British Army. In the past seven years there have been two minor attacks near the base. The GAA had been assured by the British Army that, when the building work was completed, there would be little or no use for the right of way. There are already two entrances available to the Army on the Culloville Road. If an entrance to the rere of the base was ever justified at all times a more suitable entrance was available to the Army, namely, the vacant site of Crossmaglen Technical School, owned by the Ministery of Education and which has been derelict for the past 20 years.
Therefore the situation is that there has been utter provocation of the nationalist people in Crossmaglen and in the South Armagh area since 1971. The British Government through their army, have confiscated the property — they have destroyed it — and even the perimeter fence around the grounds has been destroyed by them. Helicopters have landed in the field during games, preventing their completion. There has been an amount of wanton damage done to the existing clubhouse and property, due basically to the fact that helicopters fly in at very low levels over the building. As a result of constant vibration the whole structure is threatened and is constantly cracking at one end of the clubhouse.
Negotiations have taken place with various officials of the Northern Ireland Office, and indeed with people in London, over a long period. Any time that any amount of progress has been seen to be made those officials have been removed from the positions they held and placed in some other section of the Northern Ireland Office, no longer being available to the GAA or their legal advisers in order to conclude negotiations. Consequently utter confusion reigns and no progress has been made.
I understand that, as yet neither the Minister nor his Minister of State has visited Crossmaglen. With my colleague, Deputy Kirk, and Senator Rory Kiely from Limerick I visited the Crossmaglen grounds when we saw for ourselves the situation obtaining there. Not alone did we see the damage and destruction done but, while there, we saw the British Army enter the grounds, carry out manoeuvres around the grounds, enter through the perimeter fence at places where they had already used wire cutters to cut holes in the fence rather than use the adequate number of gates available to them.
It is time that the Minister for Foreign Affairs or his Minister of State visited Crossmaglen to see the situation at first hand. We want the Minister to ensure that the British Army are removed from the ground and that they declare their intent to do so now. We want the British Government to pay compensation to the Crossmaglen club to cover the damage and destruction done to the ground, for the confiscated property which is within the Army base and for the inconvenience caused to members in their efforts to visit the ground. In the centenary year of the GAA and Olympics year, this is the only sports ground in the world where members are prevented from using their own facilities.
There has been political procrastination by the Northern Ireland Office and the British Government since 1971. Mental and physical violence have been imposed on the nationalist people in Crossmaglen. The British Army have put up road blocks at various points and have prevented games from being played to a finish. They have also prevented people from getting to Mass on time. The Army are supposed to be there in a peace-keeping role but they are trying to create conflict so that they can justify their offensive activities among the people of Crossmaglen and the South Armagh area. In this historic year, when the New Ireland Forum have published their report, new initiatives should now be taken. In view of the fact that the Minister for Foreign Affairs will be having discussions with the British Government regarding the Forum, I hope that one of his priorities will be to seek the removal of the British Army from the Crossmaglen grounds. It is time that they did so. It is part of the intransigent situation which has prevailed in Northern Ireland for many years. I hope that an effort can be made, through the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Government, to get a breakthrough for the people of Crossmaglen and that the British Government will remove their alien administration and Army from the North of this island.
I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this matter. I am sorry that the concentration on this problem by this and the other House has taken place over a relatively short period of time. There was an Adjournment Debate in the Seanad last week, there was an extensive Question Time today here on the question of Crossmaglen GAA pitch and now we have this Adjournment Debate. We need a more sustained period of interest over a longer time.
As Deputies have rightly said, this serious aggravation of a very honourable GAA club in Crossmaglen has been taking place since the early seventies. There is no doubt that the GAA Club in Crossmaglen has been, to put it as its very mildest, seriously inconvenienced by the manner in which the British Army have been using their grounds to get access to their barracks in Crossmaglen. Many people in the area think that this aggravation is unnecessary and that the use of the grounds as an access route is not warranted. It has been said that the British Army should remove their presence in the centenary year of the GAA. I do not see what that has to do with the case. They should remove their presence, whether it is in the 90th or the 101st year of the GAA. That is not a relevant argument. There have been five or six Governments and seven or eight Ministers for Foreign Affairs since this problem started and, as the Minister of State for my Department said when he was answering questions here today, it is not customary to list the number of representations or approaches which have been made in this regard. However, in 30 or 50 years' time, whenever the records of this period will be made known, it will be seen that nobody has been more active in this regard than I have been during the last 18 months.
The problem has got worse.
It has got marginally better in some respects. I want to say again that no Minister and Government have been more active in this regard than we have been during the last 18 months.
As a former Minister——
You cannot speak, this is a limited debate.
I know that Deputy O'Kennedy also made representations, as did every other Minister for Foreign Affairs.
(Interruptions.)
We have been very active in this matter.
At what level?
It is not customary to reveal the levels or the number of occasions on which I made representations and I am sure Deputy O'Kennedy appreciates that. It would not be in the national interest to do so. That level of activity will not cease or be at any lower level until this problem has been solved. The Taoiseach has met deputations from the GAA, I have met deputations from the Rangers Club in Crossmaglen and some of the Deputies opposite have also met them. Any of those people can brief Deputies on the response they got from me and what they felt about my attitude to the problem. They will know from other officers of the GAA what I have been endeavouring to do. I will continue in my efforts to have this serious and unnecessary aggravation ended.
The Dáil adjourned at 11 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 17 May 1984.