In the police headquarters at Newry, County Down, Superintendent Gerry French of the Royal Ulster Constabulary frets over the calm. Nothing unusual is going on outside in the bustling, mainly Catholic town. Pedestrians stroll. Shoppers head for McEvoy's Fashion Store close by. But even the commonplace may impart fear in Ulster, and French knows that appearances are deceptive. In February 1986, mortar shells launched by the Irish Republican Army thundered down on the police station, killing nine officers as they ate their evening meal. Since rebuilt, Newry station is now a fortress, protected by thick concrete walls and a 30-ft.-high reinforced-steel fence. "I know they are out there plotting and planning," says French of the I.R.A. "It takes very few on their side to create havoc."
The past year has seen havoc enough. Sectarian violence claimed 93 lives, up from 61 in 1986, bringing the toll to 2,628 since 1969. Among the victims, 27 were members of the R.U.C., the British army and the Ulster Defense Regiment, the locally recruited, predominantly Protestant militia that assists in policing the province. On the other hand, the I.R.A. suffered its worst setbacks in years. It lost 22 men, including eight members of a single unit, and in November both the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority condemned the organization for its part in the bombing deaths of eleven civilians in Enniskillen. The I.R.A.'s troubles are no comfort, however, to officers like French. Sooner or later, they believe, the I.R.A. will stage a spectacular comeback to restore morale among its hard-line supporters.
French has been through Ulster's cycles of violence from the beginning. A close friend, who had joined the R.U.C. on the same day that French did, was killed in 1970, the first police victim of the I.R.A. Today French is responsible for some of the roughest terrain in Ulster, a stretch of 41 miles along the border with the Irish Republic that is part of "bandit country." The I.R.A. constantly uses the 291 crossings along the 280-mile border to escape manhunts, carry out ambushes and smuggle weapons and explosives.
As British army helicopters rattle over the border's farmlands, troops survey the countryside from 60-ft.-high watchtowers. With 10,000 British soldiers serving in ten battalions in Ulster, an army spokesman notes, "you get soldiers who are very young and want action. Where do they get it better than in Northern Ireland? They pick up infantry skills they could not get on any training course." The R.U.C. keeps in constant contact with the Garda Siochana, the police force of the Irish Republic. "There used to be a lot of ambivalence from Dublin about terrorism," says a high-ranking R.U.C. officer. "But not anymore." Says French: "If we mount an operation, they will block escape routes on their side. If we want their help, we get it."