The invasion of Hackballscross

The fact of an incursion by British troops at Hackballscross and the vandalism which resulted in the closing off of the water supply to Dundalk are of significance. Of even more significance is the manner in which the government ignored the evidence of local people, immediately accepted the British version of events and issued a statement which is contradicted by garda reports. By Fergal Keane

ON FRIDAY MORNING, 31 MAY, A PARTY OF "British troops crossed the border near Hackballscross and entered John Conway's yard in north county Louth. After the local gardai had turned their back Conway disscovered one of his oil storage tanks had been deliberately, tampered with. 10,000 gallons of diesel had run into a nearby bog and from there into the Courtbane river, part of the water supply to Dundalk. The water.was so heavily polluted that the local council were forced to cut the supply to the town for much of the weekend.

John Conway and several other eyewitnesses say forty, and perhaps up to sixty troops crossed the border at 11am on that Friday morning and only they could have been responsible for the spillage.

The Irish Government say only five troops were involved and it was more than likely that a passing Provisional, seizing on the opportunity to cause trouble close to the local elections, removed the tank's valve and allowed the oil to flow.

For their part, the British army conducted a perfunctory enquiry into the incident and concluded that only a small number of their men were involved in. the incursion. The army won't speculate on who did it but they say they didn't. .

Local people are incensed. They feel the Government are engaging in a deliberate cover up of an act of vandalism by British troops and a blatant disregard for the sovereignty of the state.

CONWAY HIMSELF NOTICED THE SMELL FIRST. ,I An hour after all the excitement of the Garda/British army confrontation in his yard had died down he decided it was safe to leave the shed where he was repairing a Hyy. Mac digger, walk the 500 yards to thy border and check on a cow which was due to calf.

At the bottom of the yard where the Conway brothers make a living refurbishing vehicles, the three foot wide Courtbane river marks the political divide for two miles east and two miles west. Between the yard and the river is a small hollow where they quarry stone for local use. There are a lot of heavy vehicles lying about. Another local man keeps a number of large oil tanks in the qUarry and uses it as it diesel distribution point.

When John Conway reached the river the smell of oil was overpowering. The gate to the field where the cow was kept was usually closed but this morning someone had left it open. He was suspicious. Nobody but the British army had been around there since the previous day when the gate had definitely been closed.

He saw the river. There was six inches of white diesel flowing on the surface. He ran back towards the tanks. The acre' of bog at the end of the yard was covered in oil as was the dirt road in the quarry.

By the time he reached the source of the flow there was only a dribble coming from the huge tank. Someone had removed the valve and thrown it away. Conway had -to get a spanner to shut it off. It was 12.30pm. Later he would estimate that it took a little more than an hour for 10,000 gallons of diesel to pour out through the three inch pipe. That would mean the valve was unscrewed shortly after 11am, at the height of the incursion by the British troops.

There had been a lot of troop activity in the area since' early morning. Mick Daly, his wife Carmel and their kids live on a bit of a rise above and behind the Conway's place. They had heard numerous helicopters flying in and around Hackballscross since dawn but they were well used to that and they were well used to the British army. Choppers were always buzzing around and every couple of nights their TV would go on the blink. The only thing that put the television out was radio interference from high powered transmitters being operated within a few hundred yards. The only ones who used radios like that were the British army.

By the time John Conway arrived at the yard from his home in Dundalk, ten miles away, things had gotten quiet again. He and his brother Hughie set to work on the HyyMac in the big shed at the top of the yard.sThe weather was good and the brothers left the shed doors open to enjoy the sun and get some air.

From where they were they could see the whole way down the slope of the yard to the river below. At the other side of the border the land rises again and the Con ways' view of John Harry's field and Sissy's field on the northern side was only partially obstructed by clumps of trees. They know the land well. Their parents keep greyhounds near John Harry's field and the "old greyhounds" have been doing pretty well lately .

At eleven o'clock John was bent over the Hy-Mac when Hughie called him from the door.

"Look at what the Brits are doing."

They could see a line of troops advancing over the brow of the hill a few hundred yards inside the North. They were stretched out in travel formation, seven men to a line, one line covering as the other advanced. John Conway ran out to the yard to see where the lines ended. He saw several small groups breaking away to take up defensive positions at points on the far side of the border. The rest kept advanncing and Hughie shouted, "Jesus, the fuckers are crossing the border."

One group of seven, according to the Conways, came along a plank which was used as a bridge on the river. Another moved to the Conways' left, up the hill towards Quinlan's farm and a deserted house, known locally as Lenihan's old place.

John sent Hughie to call the guards. Hughie made the call and opened the gates to the yard so the garda patrol car could get in quickly.

By now more troops appeared on the hill to John Connway's right. They were still advancing and looked as if they were covering other groups which were hidden from his view by trees and hollows. He could see those on his left approaching Lenihan's old place. They were covered by a heavy machine gun. His view of the quarry and the oil tanks was obscured.

At the same time the patrol consisting of seven or eight soldiers were still making their way up the centre of the yard and were almost at the shed. Conway shouted to them that they were in the 'State but still they kept coming. All three groups were by now nearly 500 yards within the Reepublic and all had crossed the river which clearly marked the border.

A GARDA CAR SCREAMED IN THROUGH THE gate and stopped the advance of the group in the centre, just at Conways' shed. Gardai and troops confronnted one another in a polite exchange. As the soldiers cradled their GMPG machine guns, maps were produced and spread out on the bonnet of the car. After five minutes the army began to withdraw.

When the gardai arrived Carmel Daly was hanging out her washing on the line. As the Dalys' garden is on a higher level than the yard she didn't see the patrol car but she had a clear view of the troop activity around Lenihan's old place to her left. She saw seven or eight soldiers who apppeared as if they were searching the deserted farm house, while another, wearing a red hat or helmet, stood some disstance behind them watching the whole operation. As the border swings slightly to the south just at that point he was in the North, but all the others were clearly in the South.

As soon as the British began to withdraw, the patrol car, according to John Conway "swung round and went out the gate as if there was a wildcat after it."

The guards drove down a lane on the left of Lenihans' and Quinlans' to see what was happening from higher ground. They. could have driven down the centre of Connways' yard but they didn't. Later on, Conway claims, one of the gardai would tell him that while they were near Quinlans they got the smell of the diesel but didn't know where it came from.

MOST OF THE PEOPLE LIVING IN THE HACKballscross area of north Louth resent and distrust the British army. Many believe the army presents a greater danger to their safety than the IRA ever did. Once local people saw the extent of the incursion into Conways' yard many got scared.

Three men who were in the yard at the time on business made a run for it. The diesel owner's son, Rory Hughes, jumped into a van and drove in the other direction where he was stopped by a garda checkpoint. A hundred yards later on, at the other side of the border, he was again stoppped, this time by an RUC checkpoint.

Someone else beat a retreat before the advancing troops and ran down the road to warn some men who had excluusion orders from the North issued against them recently. Few would put it past the British army to cross the border and snatch anyone they wanted. It's happened before, they say.

There are a number of theories doing the rounds locally about this latest incursion, only one of hundreds in the past ten years. Exactly a week before the incident the Provisioonal IRA staged one of their most spectacular attacks of recent times three miles away in Crossmaglen. An army Wessex helicopter came under sustained fire from two 50mm Browning heavy machine guns and an M60 machine gun mounted on the back of an open truck. The Provo's shot at the helicopter for a full five minutes and shattered its windscreen before making off with the guns.

John Conway, Mick Daly and local independent County Councillor, Michael O'Donnell are convinced that the operaation which resulted in the incursion in Conways' yard was a search for those guns. The British, they say, do not trust the southern security forces one bit and whenever they get the chance will conduct their own searches.

Local people, politicians and gardai reject out of hand the British excuse that the incursion was a result of a map reading error. "That's a load of bullshit," according to Louth Fine Gael TD, Brendan McGahon. "I totally reject their statement that only a small number of men were innvolved because five soldiers do not go around whistling 'It's a Long Rod'. They are always covered by other people nearby."

That regiment had been around Conways several times before and knew well that the river was the border, he says.

Conway believes that the army were convinced the IRA's heavy machine guns were hidden in or around Lenihan's old place, that they crossed the border deliberately with the intention of searching as much as they could before they were detected. From the way they moved, he says, it looked as if every man knew exactly where to go before they made the crossing.

"They had just started to search Lenihan's place when they were discovered and naturally they were a bit peeved. They thought they would have more time and they would have if the shed doors were closed." They were so peeved that one of them let the oil out of the tank.

THE GARDAI KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP BEFORE the actual incursion occurred. Not that they were notiified of the operations beforehand but with all the helicoppter activity and years of experience they would have had to be blind and deaf not to know the army were engaged in something.

Superintendent Jack Keogh of Dundalk says the local gaIdaihavelJointeIactiolJ wnstsoever with the British srmy, "Despite what people think we do not cooperate with them at all. We have no notification if there is something happenning on the border and all we can do is put them back out of the state if they're in." But once something does start the gardai set up checkpoints because the local people feel safer when they are around.

On that Friday morning the gardai from Hackballscross set up a checkpoint at Ballybinaby Cross and there was some garda activity up the Ballybinaby road, about 200 yards from the edge of Conways' yard. It is not known whether or not these guards were observing what was happpening.

When Hughie Conway telephoned the station in Hackkballscross those guards were in the only patrol car on duty and they answered the call. Their official report of the inncident says they arrived in Conways shortly after eleven. They came across a number of British army personnel making their way up the centre of the yard towards them and one carried a map. He seemed to be in charge.

A garda told him he was'in the South but he seemed quite adamant that he was in the North. The gardai nooticed some other troops off to their left (Lenihan's old place is to the left of the yard) and there seemed to be a lot of troop activity in the area north of the border.

The word went back to Dublin. The gardai had turned back a number of British troops in a man's yard in county Louth. But the gardai had themselves only met with six or seven soldiers, they had only seen the others. The powers that be in Dublin let it be known that five troops were innvolved. Nothing was said about all the others or about the fact that there were seven soldiers in the yard and not five.

Nobody asked the Conways or the Dalys what happpened. The Irish Government protested to the British Government about the five troops and in return got the map reading excuse. The government were satisfied and promptly stifled all attempts by loeal TDs, Brendan McGahon, FG, and Seamus Kirk, FF, to raise the matter in the Dail.

Late last week a government spokesman gave the offiicial Cabinet version of events to the press. He stated cateegorically that there were five and only five troops involved, not sixty and not even seven. It was every bit as likely, he saisl, that a passing Provo pulled the plug on the tank and indeed it was more than likely that that was the case. Effectively, the Conways, the Dalys and everyone else who saw the incident were liars, the British army had made a legitimate mistake and once this was pointed out to them they withdrew gracefully and the phantom passing Provo was the cause of all the trouble.

The papers were happy, they had a story which wrapped up nicely. The local people were angry and screamed cover up. The Provos just laughed.

If a Provo turned the valve he would either have had to pass the Conway brothers by and walk down the centre of the yard or else he would have had to penetrate the ranks of all the troops they saw surrounding the quarry on three sides. According to John Conway and the other witnesses it would have been physically impossible for anyone but the British army to reach the tanks.

"There wasn't a Provo within miles on that day. The only time you won't get them around is when the British army saturate the area. If they had prior knowledge of what was going to happen they would have prepared in the form of a land mine or something. What they don't do is stay to flirt around from hedgerow to hedgerow, they slip off to Dundalk or somewhere and have a few pints until the whole thing has died down." Local Sinn Fein activists dismiss as ludicrous the suggestion that the IRA were responsible.

"But," according to Sinn Fein candidate for the Louth County Council, Arthur Morgan, "the consequences for the local people are too potentially dangerous for anybody to laugh at it." Sinn Fein claim that with the cooperation of the southern security forces the British army cross the borrder almost at will. This year alone, they say, there have been over forty border incursions which were reported.

Many more went unrecorded, they say.

The people of Hackballscross are angry. Not so much with the British army, they expect nothing more from them, but with the Irish Government which, they feel, has abandoned them. Local Independent Councillor, Michael O'Donnell makes no bones about it.

"That statement the government made about the incurrsion is the greatest load of crap I have ever heard. It was obviously put together by some mindless civil servant who knew nothing about the situation, only what he was told to say."

Dublin will take the word of the British without any proof whatsoever, they make protests and receive platitudes in return and are prepared to leave the people living around the border to look after themselves, he says. Brendan MeeGahon believes it is part of government policy to play down any incident involving the RUC or the army.

Whatever about policy the only one who knows who is going to pay for the destroyed diesel, according to John Conway, is God. The damage to his property is something else. His bog burned for a day and a half after the spillage and some of the trees will never grow again. He's hoping the cattle won't be affected.

Should either the owner of the diesel, Patsy Hughes, or John Conway himself decide to bring a malicious damages claim against Louth County Council for the £28,000 worth of fuel they lost, a number of embarrassing questions will face the government.

In the first place, why was the evidence of eyewitnesses disregarded and why was the number of troops involved understated even from official reports? Secondly where did they come up with the phantom Provo when even one top garda who visited the scene commented afterwards to Magill that: "The tank was opened by a person or persons unnknown but we're pretty sure that they were in uniform,"?

And finally, and most importantly for the security of the state, why didn't the gardai arrest the British soldiers they found on the scene for being in possession of arms illlegally? There's a law against that somewhere. •