BORDERHISTORYREVEALED

THE issue of the border between the North and South of Ireland, along with fuel smuggling, could be assumed to be problems of our times, but information uncovered in government papers released under the 30 year rule show the frontier and illicit diesel were troubling the powers that be three decades ago.

Renowned historian Dr Eamon Phoenix revealed how the continued closure of the Newry-Dundalk road was ‘intolerable’ according to SDLP MP Seamus Mallon.

According to Dr Phoenix, writing for BBC Northern Ireland: ‘In December 1989, Mr Mallon said the closure of the road on security grounds had resulted in the border ‘ being cordoned-off for days at a time’.

‘Mr Mallon also complained that normal policing of the area was greatly inadequate as the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) had ‘no stomach’ for combating ordinary crime.

‘ The duration of the road closures was intolerable, the MP wrote, given the ‘superb surveillance’ facilities available to the security forces - a reference to the many British Army watchtowers that peppered the hilltops of south Armagh.

‘And a letter from a Northern Ireland Office (NIO) official to Prime Minister Thatcher’s private secretary shows government concern at the Irish government’s ‘48-hour rule’ for cross-border shoppers, introduced in 1987.

The regulations were introduced at a time when a substantial flow of shoppers were heading north to take advantage of lower prices.

The Irish measures denied these shoppers the ‘ travellers allowances’ (ie freedom from Irish tax on Northern Ireland purchases) conferred by European law.

‘Cross-border fuel smuggling emerges in papers from 1990. The Haughey government wanted the British to introduce a chemical marker into petrol on sale in Northern Ireland, while the NIO felt Irish estimates of the scale of smuggling were grossly exaggerated.

‘NIO official Austin Wilton noted that the fuel smuggling issue was first raised through the Anglo-Irish Secretariat in May 1989.

Irish officials had pointed to a link between cross-border fuel smuggling and ‘ the financing of terrorism’.

‘In the Republic a public inquiry was held into petrol prices, and Finance Minister Albert Reynolds was spearheading a drive ‘ to smash cross-border petrol rackets’.

‘ To introduce a dye as demanded by Dublin would almost certainly require primary legislation at Westminster. This could well be seen by some in the north as introducing a measure to benefit the Republic.

‘Mr Wilton noted: ‘On the other hand, the Irish could argue that it was British ministers who urged than to take the smuggling problem seriously and that... they deserve (British) support’.’