Successive Irish and British governments have to accept responsibility for allowing lawlessness to flourish in Border areas since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. The shocking torture of Kevin Lunney has exposed the absence of the basic conditions of law and order to which the community is entitled.
It is important that pressure is now maintained on the authorities in both jurisdictions to finally get to grips with the requirement to provide proper policing along the Border so the community is no longer held hostage by criminal and republican gangs and their bosses
It is not as if the scale of the lawlessness which has bedevilled the Border region for decades is any surprise. In November 2015 an investigation by a committee of the British-Irish Assembly found that criminality involving large-scale smuggling of cigarettes and fuel laundering was being carried on with apparent impunity in some areas.
Policing in south Armagh is so light that the criminals openly demonstrate their existence
Fine Gael Senator Paul Coghlan, who chaired the committee, went on a covert mission to south Armagh which has a particularly high concentration of fuel laundering plants and other illegal activity. “In fact, policing in south Armagh is so light that the criminals openly demonstrate their existence and carry on with impunity,” he told the Seanad, having witnessed it himself.
The Kerry Senator suggested that the operational districts of An Garda Síochána and the PSNI should be open to one another in a corridor along the Border. A similar call was made this week by chief executive of Quinn Industrial Holdings Liam McCaffrey who called for a task force involving both police forces to tackle the situation along the Cavan-Fermanagh Border.
There is no disguising the scale of the challenge facing the two forces. They are up against extremely dangerous people who have a hold over a frightened community. The lives of policemen who live in the area and the safety of their families may be at risk if they make a determined attempt to enforce the law. That is why a concerted campaign fully resourced by the governments is the only way to bring an end to the climate of fear under which law-abiding people have been living for so long.
It is a commentary on the mood in the Cavan-Fermanagh Border area that the parish priest of Ballyconnell, Fr Oliver O’Reilly, who spoke out so courageously against the mafia-style bosses who directed the attack on Lunney, now has worries about his own safety. The fact that a priest living in an area where the church is respected feels vulnerable to attack is a reflection of the fear felt by the entire community.
They have effectively turned a blind eye to the problem since the signing of the Belfast Agreement 21 years ago
The two governments owe it to the people of the area to provide the tools that law enforcement and other relevant agencies need to bring the lawlessness to an end because they have effectively turned a blind eye to the problem since the signing of the Belfast Agreement 21 years ago.
A shocking insight into government thinking was the comment made by then British prime minister Tony Blair to Seamus Mallon, then deputy first minister of the Northern Executive, during a dinner at Hillsborough Castle. Mallon asked Blair why all the talking was being done behind the backs of the SDLP and Ulster Unionists to more extreme forces. “The trouble with you fellows, Seamus, is that you have no guns,” replied Blair.
Pandering to men with guns may have been regarded by the two governments as necessary at a certain stage in the peace process, but that time has long passed. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin pointed to the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau after the murder of Veronica Guerin in 1996 and suggested it might be time for a cross-Border agency with similar powers to deal with the Border problem.
The most famous political adviser of them all Niccolò Machiavelli noted more than 500 years ago that the twin foundations of every state are security and rule of law. “You cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.”
It is not just in Border areas where there are security problems. The Independent Reporting Commission into paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland warned this week that the number of deaths and attacks linked to paramilitary organisations has increased over the past year. Those deaths included the murder of Lyra McKee by dissident republicans in Derry in April and the murder, by loyalists, of east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle in January. There have also been several attempts by dissident republicans to kill police officers in Northern Ireland this year.
Success in Limerick was achieved through a determined twin-track approach
The report emphasised the need for a whole-of-society approach to the problem. It pointed to what has been done in Limerick as proof that communities can be transformed if a serious effort is made to address seemingly intractable issues of criminality and gangs. Success in Limerick was achieved through a determined twin-track approach that combined good policing and law enforcement with tackling socio-economic problems. This generated buy-in from the people living there.
The problems facing underprivileged loyalist areas of Belfast and Border communities may be quite different, but the key to dealing with each is making the community safe from gunmen.