BY MICHELE CANNING SMITH
THE FIRST Strabane man to be interned has said that whilst he is glad to see the British Army off the streets, a presence still remains.
Ivan Barr, a Republican stalwart, spoke with the Strabane Chronicle as Operation Banner finally folded up after 38 years of deployment in the North.
"We are told there will still be 5000 plus here so we are back to pre-Troubles numbers so they are still a presence. I am glad to see them off the streets, they had no role on the streets.
"I would say the British govrnment is fairly relieved to take them out and deploy them to Iraq or Afghanistan. The situation here has come as a somewhat welcome favour to the needs of the British government."
Ivan Barr was detained on the first day of internment, Monday August 9th 1971, and kept aboard the British Maidstone ship at Belfast Docks for five weeks.
The then Chairman of the North's Civil Rights Association, he was taken from his home at 4am that morning by the British Army when the Special Powers Act was introduced - a move expected by many, including Ivan Barr himself.
Ironically, he had been at Magilligan the day previous to his detention, to hand over a letter of protest from NICRA to the British Army about the expected introduction of internment.
Within 24 hours, he found himself back at Magilligan, this time inside in a Nissan hut, where he was kept for 36 hours in what he says were 'atrocious conditions.'
"In the two or three months before that there had been a few false alarms over internment. Exactly one week prior to August 9th, a number of homes week raided around 4am and of course it was assumed that it was a dry run for internment.
"On the morning internment was introduced the knocking woke everyone. When I opened the door, a member of the Royal Greenjackets put a pistol to my head and told me that I was being detained and so was every male in the house over the age of 14. Unfortunately, my wife's uncle was home from England on holiday so we were both taken."
From Strabane, they were taken to Ebrington barracks in Derry, where his uncle-in-law was released. Ivan was ferried onto Maghaberry, a then army camp. After 36 hours he was taken by helicopter to Maidstone, where he spent five weeks.
"Looking back at that time, the presence of the British Army wasn't realised in Strabane until 1971. There were mobile patrols.
"But there were no street patrols then so it was almost two years on since 1969 that their presence was really felt.
"At the begining. I think people were not altogether surprised, they were more puzzled, curious even, as to how the situation would evolve.
"At the start the stop and search operations were confined to those people they identified as having sympathy with Republicans. But that all soon changed in Strabane.
"By the end of August 71, there was an element of fear, especially with the killing of Eamon McDevitt, shot dead by a Royal Marine following an Anti-Internment rally.
"After his death, there was an air of hostility but because there wasn't the permanence it wasn't demonstrated so much. But throughout the early 70's there were very frequent house searches, indiscriminate stop and searches and the resentment began to build up.
"By 1972/1973 the British Army were establishing a permanent presence in Strabane. But it was a gradual process and led to the Camel's Hump checkpoint.
In 1986 when the Army began building a checkpoint at Clady, there were street protests. Ivan Barr was joined by the SDLP's Peggy McManus during the protest.
But the real turning point in Strabane was in 1985 when Charlie Breslin and brothers Michael and David Devine, were shot by the SAS.
"It was a terrible time. It was the peak for hostility. The most notable factor was that it was no longer the younger generation, or even Republicans that felt alienated.
"I felt that the overwhelming majority of the community felt the same. One couldn't help but take notice of the thousands of people that turned out for the funerals.
"It wasn't just on the night of the killings, it was the behaviour that followed.
"The hostility just no longer seemed limited after that. There were people who had no Republican leanings who attended the wakes and funerals. They were angry at what had happened and the one question was, why didn't they just arrest the three?
"My impression at that time was that the entire Nationalist community had been alienated."
