Seanad debates

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Army Barracks Closures: Motion

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Jimmy HarteJimmy Harte (Labour)

I am anxious to have an explanation of why Lifford and Letterkenny barracks were closed. They were integral parts of their communities for a long time but they are now derelict. Perhaps Senator Wilson will explain that.

Second, I wish to remind Sinn Féin of something. I was living with my family next door to Lifford Army barracks in 1985 when the IRA set off a bomb in the street. It blew in my windows and most of the windows in the Army barracks. Sinn Féin would not condemn the incident. The glass blew into the house and almost hit my baby. Sinn Féin now has the gall, and the people of Cavan should realise this, to say it wants the Army barracks kept open. It tried to blow up the barracks in Lifford. I was young and had a young family and the IRA set off a bomb beside the bridge in Lifford on a lovely summer morning in 1985. The Senator is too young to remember, which is a pity because I remember it as if it happened yesterday. My spouse remembers it as well. A lovely morning was destroyed by people who are the Senator's friends.

The Senator need not deny them or try to deny them. Do not come into this House to say that the Army barracks throughout the country should be kept open when your organisation spent 25 or 30 years attempting to blow them up and close them down. Do not fool the people of Cavan or try to fool us that the IRA wants to keep Army barracks open. The IRA wanted to close them.

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