I should like to thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. If the House agrees I should like to share my time with Deputy McGahon.
Adjournment Debate. - Dublin-Belfast Railway Line Bombing.
Is that satisfactory? Agreed.
Over the past number of months, certainly since Christmas, there have been so many attacks, and threats of attacks, on the railway line that it has been closed for 50 days at an estimated cost of £800,000. The whole question of the attacks on this railway line raises a number of important issues, the most important of which is the threat to the lives of passengers and staff. In the case of the attack on 2 March, the bomb which damaged Craigmore viaduct went off just four minutes before a passenger train from Dublin was due to leave the nearby Newry station. There were more than 70 people on the train, and had the bomb gone off as it was passing over the bridge, or when it was too late to stop the train, the consequences would have been appalling. There is no reason to believe that that would have upset the Provisional IRA. Indeed, we would, more than likely, have been treated to one of Mr. Adams' more nauseating excuses for an apology.
There is also the question of jobs. Trade union leaders have estimated that up to 400 workers, North and South, could lose their jobs if the Provos get their way and are allowed to close the line. Apart from the railway workers directly affected there are many more employed in firms which depend on the railway line for freight services between the two parts of Ireland. Some major firms use the line: industries like CementRoadstone, Guinness, NET/Richardsons Fertilisers and Bell Lines. If they cannot get their products through, or if they have to incur additional costs by transferring to roads, it will clearly threaten the jobs of their employees. I should like to appeal to those companies not to transfer from the railway line to roads because that, in effect, would be a major psychological boost for the Provisional IRA. I should like to make the point that such a move would in no way protect those industries from the attention of that organisation because the logic of the Provo position is that they will pursue those companies whether they use the railway line or the roads, whether they are transporting in buses, trucks or cars.
There is also a basic civil liberties issue involved here. Between 2,000 and 3,000 passengers travel on the line each week, for business, work, education or family reasons. In many cases people have no alternative means of transport. The efforts by the Provisional IRA to close the line is a challenge to the very right of Irish people to move freely about the island. Imagine the outcry there would be if the authorities in the North decided to close the line on security grounds. No doubt Provo spokesmen like Adams and Morrison would be among the most vocal on the matter. The continuing attacks simply illustrate once again the appalling arrogance and hypocrisy of the Provisionals and the fundamental contradiction in their position. On the one hand they claim to want to eliminate the Border while at the same time they are doing all in their power to make travel and trade between the two parts of Ireland more difficult and dangerous. Their whole strategy is to create divisions between people, between communities, and within communities. Their very survival is based on feeding sectarian bigotry and racism.
I might refer here also to the myth that there are doves and hawks within the Provisional IRA. It is claimed that Adams is leading the dove wing of the Provisional IRA. I should remind this House and the people outside it that some of the most appalling atrocities perpetrated in Northern Ireland — Le Mans, Bloody Friday, the Kingsmills' massacre and, of course, the more recent ones in Enniskillen and so on — have been perpetrated under the tutelage of the Adams faction when they came to prominence in Northern Ireland in the early seventies.
The rail line is used entirely by civilians. This raises the question why in recent months it has become a focal point for attacks by the Provos. The fact that it offers an opportunity to destroy and endanger lives, and is a soft target, may well be enough for their perverse logic. It has certainly been the case in relation to other attacks by the Provos, such as Enniskillen, Warrenpoint, or the murder of Harry Keyes or Gillian Johnstone.
However, it is important that the authorities on both sides of the Border should investigate reports of money being paid to the Provos to have the line closed for commercial reasons. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions in a statement last month referred to the possible involvement of illegal hauliers. Following an earlier public statement I made on the matter, I received a telephone call to my office suggesting that money was being paid to the Provos to keep the line closed, that the real target of the attacks were the consignments of cement which go North from the Irish cement plant at Drogheda. The Provos themselves, of course, have suggested that their motive is the ghoulish one of forcing the security forces out into the open, presumably so that they can more easily murder them.
Whatever the motives for their life threatening and destructive attacks on the line, it is important that the Provisionals are not allowed to succeed. In the early seventies the Provisionals destroyed the electricity interconnector and frustrated the possibility of cheaper electricity in both parts of Ireland. They also frustrated the possibility of this State selling gas to Northern Ireland. They must not be allowed do the same with the rail line. The two Governments must co-operate on whatever security and other measures are necessary to keep the line open. Workers, passengers, companies and ordinary citizens should make their views on these attacks known publicly to the Provisionals at every opportunity. They should be told in no uncertain terms what the ordinary public think of their vicious campaign.
As a means of providing the public and representative organisations with an opportunity to demonstrate their abhorrence of the Provo campaign, I have established a small committee to organise a "peace train" from Dublin to Belfast. I am also inviting a wide range of commercial, trade union and cultural groups to a private meeting to discuss this proposal to ascertain how the greatest possible participation of people can be ensured.
In the longer term, these attacks on the line and other murderous attacks by the Provos simply emphasise the need for political action to isolate and defeat the gunmen. This can best be done through dialogue between the democratic political parties in Northern Ireland, leading to the establishment of devolved government there, guaranteed by a Bill of Rights and a job creation programme.
The House will appreciate that we lost a considerable amount of time from this debate by reason of the vote which has just concluded. Therefore, I want to inform Deputies De Rossa and McGahon that I will be obliged to call on the Minister of State at 8.56 p.m.
I am sure the Minister will give me a minute of her time.
I join with Deputy De Rossa in condemning the IRA for yet another mindless act of aggression against the Irish nation. The current campaign directed against the ordinary people of Ireland travelling North and South is further proof, if such were needed, that this ragbag organisation of gangsters and bandits will stop at nothing in their crazed efforts to destabilise Irish society and injure the Irish nation one way or another. There are over 400 workers whose jobs and livelihood are at risk and over 500,000 passengers from the North visit the South annually.
My town of Dundalk is one that bears living testimony to crimes committed against it by the IRA in the huge unemployment figures. They now want to turn the town into a railway cul-de-sac as if the mass emigration from Dundalk had not been a sufficient blow to inflict on that town.
Already these gangsters have cost CIE and Northern Ireland Railways over £1 million revenue in lost freight. More and more people are coming to the belief that road hauliers are paying money to the IRA to carry out their dastardly work. In the racketeer system that has turned the Six Counties into a racketeering paradise, this possibility must be strongly considered.
I am a regular traveller on CIE and have seen the disturbance and disruption the IRA have caused hundreds of passengers, their mercy plea being that no bomb has yet gone off on the line which could cause death on a massive scale. It should be remembered that if such were to happen we would then have the spectacle of Mr. Adams, the Irish Dr. Mengele, the angel of death, apologising to victims' families, promising to be more careful about his kind of "injustice".
I commend the courage and forbearance of the travelling public, the joint staffs of Northern Ireland Railways and Iarnród Éireann on their determination to carry on against this partitionist attack on Irish people.
I am sorry to interrupt the Deputy but I must now call on the Minister of State.
I would ask the Minister to join the authorities in the North in preserving the rule of law, ensuring that the vital rail link between the peoples of Ireland, North and South, remains open.
I would like to begin, A Ceann Comhairle, by assuring Deputies that the Department of Foreign Affairs have been in close contact with the British authorities on the matter of the bombing campaign on the Dublin to Belfast railway line. Delays in re-opening the line have been due to the suspected presence of secondary devices. One such device in fact exploded, causing injury to a British Army explosives officer on 17 February. I can assure the House that the British authorities are fully aware of the importance of keeping the line open and safe for travel.
I am sure that all Members of the House will join me in condemning in the strongest possible terms the series of explosions on the Dublin to Belfast railway which have occurred recently. Those who carry out such attacks would seem to have little or no concern for the appalling loss of life which could so easily result from their activities. I particularly condemn the statement issued by the IRA on 16 April "advising" employees and officials of Northern Ireland Railways to stay away from the railway line in order to avoid death or injury in an IRA attack.
The recent campaign began on 16 December last when a device was detonated on the railway line 150 metres south of Kilnasaggart Bridge. Fortunately, no injury was caused and the clearance operation began. On 28 December, a 400 lb radio-controlled bomb containing home-made explosives was found hidden in a stone wall some 25 to 30 metres from the line. It was defused. The clearance operation ended on 29 December and the line was opened the following day.
On 3 February, Northern Ireland Railways reported that two bombs were hidden on the line at Kilnasaggart Bridge. These bombs exploded the following day and damaged the bridge. The clearance operation began on 5 February and on 17 February a secondary device exploded causing injury to an explosives officer. On 18 February another bomb containing between two and five kilos of semtex was found and defused. On 19 February yet another bomb, this time containing 100 kilos of a home-made explosive, was found and defused. The clearance operation was concluded on 21 February and the line reopened.
On 23 February, a bomb exploded at Silverwood Bridge. It contained five kilos of semtex. A clearance operation was mounted which concluded on 27 February. The following day there were two telephone calls saying that there were two devices on the Portadown/Newry stretch of the line. A clearance operation was mounted. No bomb was found. The line was reopened on 1 March.
On 2 March, a bomb exploded at the Craigmore viaduct. Again, fortunately, there were no injuries. A clearance operation had to be mounted and the line was closed yet again. It was reopened on 8 March. On 12/13 March, there was a bomb scare and the line was closed for 22 hours.
On 1 April, there was another bomb scare and the line was closed for 3 hours. On 5 April, there was a further hoax call and the line was closed for four hours. On 10 April, there was a telephone call saying that a bomb on the line was timed to explode within 20 minutes. An explosion was heard and it was subsequently found to have occurred south of Newry Station. On 11 April, two devices were discovered at Meigh, south of Newry. On the same say, a further device was found south of Newry Station. That device was defused on 17 April. The devices at Meigh remain to be dealt with and, as Deputies will be aware, that line to Newry and from Dundalk is open. In the meantime, passengers are being taken by bus between Newry and Dundalk.
In all, the line has been closed for some 45 days since 16 December 1988. As I said in my opening comments, the British authorities are aware of the importance of keeping the line open and safe for travel. Deputies will appreciate that due regard must be had to the necessity to ensure that lives will not be put at risk by a hurried reopening.
It is hard to understand what those who endanger the lives of civilian train passengers expect to gain from a bombing campaign against a railway line which brings passengers and freight to and from both parts of our island. The objective of this campaign appears to be to close down this link. How can action which divides be reconciled with the objective of unifying and bringing together?
The disregard for human life by those responsible for this campaign was chillingly demonstrated yet again by the appalling killing of Miss Joanne Reilly in Warrenpoint, County Down. I am sure that all Deputies will want to join me in condemning this killing of an innocent young girl.
It is ironic that, as we approach 1992 and the progressive elimination of barriers between North and South, the continuing campaign of violence — as reflected in the attacks on the North/South rail links — are deepening the division between the two parts of the island and seriously damaging ongoing business, Trade and personal links between North and South, and their further development.
The damaging effects of partition on the economies of both parts of the island are well known. As the Tánaiste said in a public statement he issued on 13 March last, union representatives have estimated that the jobs of some 400 persons working either with Iarnród Éireann or the Northern Ireland Railways are in jeopardy. Those responsible for the bombing campaign and anyone who has influence upon them should think about the effect of these actions in placing the livelihood of these workers in jeopardy.
In conclusion, a Cheann Comhairle, I would appeal again to all engaged in violence to consider the appalling effect of their campaign and to desist from activities which can have no place in the Ireland we are trying to build.
The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 20 April 1989.