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A degree of normality will return to border areas of Northern Ireland tomorrow when the last British troops leave their base at Bessbrook in South Armagh.
Bessbrook was the centre of a spiders web of bases which dominated the Armagh - Tyrone border area for over thirty-five years. It was also the main heliport for the increasingly ramshackle fleet of British Army and RAF helicopters essential to Police and Army movement as the occupying forces were denied surface movement by the IRA.
Bessbrook was a symbol of a modern day 'Maginot mentality' which believed a series of fortified posts spread across South Armagh could contain the campaign by the Irish Republican Army.
Ultimately (like the Maginot line before it) the strategy was unsuccessful and the Army and Police became prisoners in a hostile environment with, at the tail end of the IRA campaign, even their helicopter logistical support severely tested.
The British Army will officially end its supporting role, 'Operation Banner', for the British Police in Northern Ireland but provocatively a substantial garrison will still be maintained.
'Operation Banner' is now being re-branded as the 'British Army's longest peacekeeping operation' and there are proposals for service recognition medals for those who served and the inclusion in commemoration of those who died.
However, those of us in the Celtic Countries who have followed this operation over the years will remember it for what is was; a squalid episode which for many years propped-up sectarianism and ensured the continued division of Ireland. Many of the worst excesses of the British Army and security forces which were committed in the six counties it was thought until recently had been consigned to history. However the emerging picture of brutality and murder meted out by British Forces to the people of Iraq show that this 'leopard has not changed its spots'.
Bessbrooks closure is a welcome development but there can be no real closure until the British Army in its entirety is gone from Ireland!
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
24/06/07
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