Colm Fitzpatrick
Fr Gary Donegan A hard border being erected between the north and south will give “oxygen” to dissident groups who will use it as an opportunity to promote paramilitary violence, a well-known priest has said.
Fr Gary Donegan CP, nationally renowned for his ongoing commitment to conflict resolution and peace building in the North of Ireland, said that a hard border will lead to an increase in paramilitary operations and bring about a new military presence.
“I know what a border is like, and the moment you put any kind of border in, if you put anyone with a uniform in, be it a custom man, a soldier, a policeman, a guard or whatever, you will give those guys the oxygen they need – they will take them out and we will end up with
soldiers back on the street again.”
His comments come after the PSNI discovered significant amounts of weapons and ammunition stored in a boiler house last week in Belfast, believed to be owned by the New IRA.
Fr Donegan said that residents in the North are more “anxious” about dissident threat today because there seems to be a “looser” structure to paramilitary organisations than in the past.
“During the times of the Troubles, there would have been always that kind of sense of a military presence and also a paramilitary presence but in the main, there was a command structure that in some way people kind of respected.
“And I suppose where the fear now is the looseness of that kind of command plus the association of a lot of these people with gangsterism,” Fr Donegan said.