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Last week Provos from the South Armagh Battalion hijacked and blew up a freight train from Dublin to Belfast just after it crossed the border into Ulster. No one was killed, but the explosion caused $400,000 worth of damage. A major catastrophe was barely averted when a southbound passenger train screeched to a halt just before colliding with the destroyed freight cars. Moreover, in what may mean even more intense sectarian violence in the future, County Armagh is emerging as the center of breakaway I.R.A. factions. These extremist groups reject the willingness of some Provo leaders to discuss with Britain a political solution for Ulster. In the past year the breakaway groups have begun operations on their own in "bandit country." Says one I.R.A. activist in Dublin with close ties to the country:
"All this talk about power-sharing and political compromise has never meant anything in South Armagh."
Little Hope. Such attitudes have led the I.R.A. to call South Armagh an "independent republic." Its capital is the dingy farm hamlet of Crossmaglen (pop.
1,200), located near the center of the salient. Crossmaglen's most distinguishing feature is a fire-gutted remnant of the town hall, destroyed by the British after an I.R.A. ambush. Half a block off the main square, whose principal commercial life revolves around ten seedy-looking pubs, is a British army post housing some 110 Royal Fusiliers. The compound is known locally as the Alamo, and for good reason: it is ringed by two-story-high corrugated steel walls, topped by concertina wire and strung over with camouflage netting.
All deliveries to and from the fort —from guns to garbage—are made by chopper. Army patrols outside the front gate are bizarre affairs in which squads of soldiers dart down the street, scurrying from one doorway to the next in a breathless circuit around the square, then scramble back inside the fort.
Meanwhile, all townspeople on the street quickly melt away, to be replaced by I.R.A. gunmen, who fire at the soldiers from behind parked cars before vanishing again themselves. These attacks have become so ritualized that Crossmagleners have posted signs warning incoming motorists whenever an army patrol ventures out. More often than not, the I.R.A.'s illegal tricolor flag hangs above the gutted town hall.
British officials privately admit they see little hope of ever bringing South Armagh under control, and they doubt that Catholics who support "the boys" will be impressed even by such a major British gesture as London's recent decision to abandon its hated internment policy in Northern Ireland. "Militarily, it's a no-win situation," admits one official.
"Our army is in County Armagh for one reason only—there is no way it can leave without creating a storm in the House of Commons." Just as the U.S. Army learned in Viet Nam, the military's very presence in the area has helped to alienate local residents and broaden support for "the enemy." Says Paddy Short, a ruddy-faced bartender in one of Crossmaglen's pubs: "They're an army of occupation and we're an occupied country. We're not pro I.R.A., we're just anti-British. We hate them, and nothing is going to change until they leave."