IRA threat to Brexit border posts in Ulster
SECURITy checkpoints and customs bases in Northern Ireland after Brexit will become targets and a ‘recruiting badge’ for dissident republican groups, MPs warned yesterday.
It came after MI5 carried out an investigation into the terrorism threat linked to ‘installations or infrastructure at the border’ with the Irish Republic.
The intelligence agency said it feared the New IRA could become a more dangerous threat in the future. MPs on the Commons intelligence and security committee released a report into Northern Ireland terrorism concluding that security and customs bases would ‘increase the risk of political violence in border areas’.
They also warned that dissident republican groups, including the New IRA, were recruiting ‘ significant numbers of young people’.
The report stated: ‘Any infrastructure erected at the Irish border to handle customs or security checks would immedi
‘Recruiting badge for terrorists’
ately become a target for DR [dissident republican] attacks.’
It said infrastructure ‘will be both a target and a recruiting badge for dissident republican groups’. It also warned the changes may ‘reignite the threat from loyalist groups that have previously held a ceasefire’.
The report pointed to a study in February last year that warned a return to violence in Northern Ireland would be ‘inevitable’ if there was a hard border. The study also said marginalised nationalist youths would be susceptible to ‘being groomed into violent activity by dissident republicans’.
Labour’s Kevan Jones and the SNP’s Stewart Hosie, who sit on the committee, said in a joint statement: ‘Dissident republican groups appear to be continuing to recruit new members – including significant numbers of young people. Unless wider issues are addressed, dissident republican groups will continue to offer an appealing “brand” for new generations and the threat will remain.’
The report said the number of attacks last yeardemonstrated that the main dissident republican groups were ‘resilient and retain both the intent and capability to cause serious damage’.
It referred to evidence from MI5, which warned MPs: ‘It is at the forefront of our minds that the New IRA could become a still more dangerous threat’.
MPs’ also said the New IRA – which was responsible for shooting journalist Lyra McKee dead during riots in Londonderry last year – is the most widespread of the four main dissident republican groups. But it said there were signs of closer co-operation between the groups than before.
MPs said that while there was an initial public backlash against the New IRA in the aftermath of the murder of Miss McKee, MI5 warned the group had ‘rallied almost immediately’. There were three other attacks by DR groups last year, including a car bomb detonated outside a courthouse in Londonderry.
A postal bomb was sent to Heathrow Airport and police were called to a hoax device where a hidden bomb exploded in Co. Fermanagh. No one was injured in the attacks.
MPs insisted that taking terrorists off the streets through criminal prosecutions must be a priority for MI5.