Latest PSNI incursion into Donegal Condemned

donegal | rights, freedoms and repression | press release

Saturday August 21, 2010 16:16

by éirígí Sligeach - éirígí

eirigisligeach at gmail dot com

For at least the third time this year a PSNI/RUC patrol crossed over the border from Belleek in Co Fermanagh into Co Donegal.

Sligo éirígí activist Gerry Casey has slammed the latest incursion by armed British forces across the border into the 26-counties. He was speaking following revelations that the PSNI crossed the border from Belleek in County Fermanagh into County Donegal on Thursday August 12th.

A PSNI spokesperson attempted to justify the incursion by saying that it was a “simple mistake” and that “the officers were from the Omagh area and not familiar with local landmarks.”

Yet this is at the very least the third incursion by the PSNI at this very same location this year alone. On both previous occasions, once when they set up a checkpoint and stopped cars in County Donegal and on a second occasion when they entered a shop south of the border, the PSNI ignored locals who told them they were out of their juridstiction.

This excuse that the PSNI were unaware of where exactly the border lies is absolute nonsense. Do the PSNI honestly expect people to believe that they send their officers out to patrol the border without knowing where the border actually is? The border is clearly marked with the bridge over the Erne river seperating Fermanagh from Donegal. Signposts welcoming people to Donegal also give the game away for any supposedly 'below intelligence' or 'lost' PSNI personnel.

Rubbishing the PSNI 'excuses' Casey said: “Incursions by the British military and police south of the border are nothing new. Over the past few decades they have regularly crossed the border for a host of various reasons, from intimidation, to intelligence gathering to murder, as in the instance of John Francis Green who was assassinated in county Monaghan. British army helicopters have also regularly overflown and indeed have even landed south of the border .”

He continued: “On a number of occasions, armed British soldiers from both regular units and undercover SAS units have been apprehended in this state by the Gardai. In stark contrast to the 26-county states treatment of those who engaged in resistance against the British occupation, these armed terrorists were released without charge and sent back across the border to continue their operations against nationalist and republican communities.”

“Particularly reprehensible has been the silence and lack of action by what passes for government in Leinster House. However, we shouldn't be surprised at that considering it is only a few months back that Donegal Fianna Fáil Senator Cecilia Keaveney proposed allowing British troops to operate in the 26 counties in some circumstances.”

Casey concluded: “This latest incursion is just the latest example of a police force that have not changed their ways as the nationalist parties in Stormont would have us believe. They continue to act as a law unto themselves, to engage in harrassment and intimidation of northern nationalists as well as political repression of those, including éirígí activists, who oppose the continued British occupation. The PSNI remain a heavily armed unaccountable and unchanged British paramilitary force enforcing British rule in Ireland and, as they showed once again in Ardoyne on the 12th July, they are willing to use whatever force necessary to maintain the occupation.”