RUC run amok in Strabane
At 2am on Saturday morning, local people were putting the
finishing touches to Ballycolman Estate's first-ever Community
Festival. Suddenly, they were confronted by a number of people
wearing black clothing and balaclava helmets, carrying rifles and
submachineguns. They shouted ``Provo IRA! Get in your house to
f...'' No one knew who they were.
Then around ten Land Rovers came into the estate, and their
occupants ran through ordering people into their houses. One
woman, Mrs Boyle, had a submachinegun shoved under her chin by a
female RUC member, who said, ``Get into the house you Fenian
B...or you'll be shot.'' A male RUC member shouted, ``Any Fenian
B... will do''.
Uniformed RUC then appeared on the scene and fired flares. Next a
helicopter arrived and hovered low over the estate for 20
minutes. Over 100 angry people were out on the streets by 2:30am,
many thinking they had been invaded by the SAS. Others thought it
was an attempt to wreck the Festival.
Sinn Féin Councillor Ivan Barr was one of the first on the scene.
When he protested to the RUC Barracks at Bowling Green, RUC
Inspector Kennedy told him that it had not been an undercover
operation, that it involved the RUC exclusively and that the
balaclavas and black clothing were the RUC's new-issue riot gear.
He said they were there because of reports of an ``illegal
checkpoint in the estate'' - an event no local resident witnessed.
Meanwhile, after complaints were made, the Festival went on the
next day and was a tremendous success. At 6pm on Sunday, at
exactly the same site where the RUC appeared, two RUC and two
British Army Land Rovers arrived. Crown Forces leapt up from
their vehicles, pulled down bunting, broke a support pole and
demolished part of a garden fence. Three women were injured.
Sinn Féin led a protest of some 400 residents that night to the
RUC Barracks at Bowling Green.
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