On Tuesday, 27 March, at about 2.30 p.m. when making my way to Dáil Éireann, I stopped at the military checkpoint at Aughnacloy, which is customary. When I was temporarily parked there waiting to be called to the central position to identify myself and get clearance, a soldier walked out of the turret which is about 12 yards from the main building and from where the soldier observed approaching traffic. He trained a high velocity rifle at me to read — as I was told later — the number plate of my car with the telescopic sights on his rifle. It was a most frightening experience although I was almost 100 per cent certain that he did not intend to shoot me.
When I was called forward a few minutes later I asked the soldier in the central position to get the officer in charge because I wanted to make a formal protest. He asked me what my protest concerned and I told him that the soldier a few yards back had pointed a rifle at me and had caused me to experience great fear. The soldier explained that this was normal practice. I imagine he thought I was Brit-bashing but I immediately put the soldier at ease and identified myself as the Deputy who went across the Border to lay a wreath for eight young British soldiers — they were teenage boys rather than soldiers — who had been brutally murdered by IRA violence. My credentials were impeccable. A constable identified me and I than questioned the correctness of using telescopic sights to read the number plate of a car. They defended the practice and said that they did it all the time. I suggested that it had been a most frightening experience and that binoculars should be used instead. It is not an excuse to say that someone has to read a number plate from a distance of 12 yards.
What happened was wrong and that is why I am bringing it to the attention of the House. It is indefensible that any soldier should raise a rifle and point it in any direction. In the conversation I had with the military personnel I realised that this is normal practice and I immediately exonerated the soldier who pointed the rifle at me. I told him I had nothing personal against him but that I certainly had a strong objection to the principle and the practice of using telescopic sights as binoculars.
I know that the rifle was loaded and that soldiers have accidentally shot people. A friend of our family, Mary Doherty from Strabane, was accidentally shot when a bullet was discharged by a soldier cleaning his rifle. She was in the back seat of a car at the time. At the same check-point a young boy was shot dead by accident. It was a dreadful experience but I do not want this to go down as Brit-bashing because that is not my style in public life. I made inquiries of people in Belfast and all round the Border and it appears that it is a common thing for soldiers to train rifles at people. I am bringing it to the attention of the House, the Government and the Secretariat to ensure that the British authorities cease this practice.
The soldiers who man the posts along the Border are young boys who come there to be trained in urban guerilla warfare. The posts are being used by the British Government — as Northern Ireland is being used by them — to train soldiers. Most of them are there for a term of duty and then sent home. The young soldiers are inexperienced and I do not use this occasion to criticise them. They are doing the job they have been trained to do. I take grave exception to a soldier pointing a rifle at me and, as someone in public life, if I did not take a stand on this and publicly protest I would be failing in my duty.
For that reason, a Cheann Comhairle, I sought your advice on the matter. I spoke to the leader of the party and I concluded that the right thing in the circumstances was to discuss it on the Adjournment. I ask the Minister to bring it officially to the attention of the Government who, in turn, should bring it to the attention of the British Government so that soldiers operating in Northern Ireland will not use telescopic sights to identify people on the street, to read vehicle number plates at checkpoints or for any purpose whatever. If identification is the reason they look through the telescopic lens of their rifles then they should be supplied with binoculars. Rifles are for killing people and I am frightened of them. If there is a minute left, Deputy McGinley would like to use it.
