A UNIONIST MLA has given a cautious welcome to the withdrawal of the army from the North, and has called for equality in the "normalisation" process of bases across the district and beyond.
Allan Bresland, a former member of the UDR was shot and injured in Strabane in the 1980's,.
He feels that the decision to completely withdraw troops could have been made too hasty, and says that he hopes the decision will turn out to be a correct one. Having served in the UDR for over a decade, his perspective is somewhat unique, and states his belief that the introduction of troops, at that particular time, was unnecessary.
He said, "I remember well the time they came in. They actually came in to save the Nationalists, it was them who took them in because they felt that they were in bother. In the later days though the Nationalists were against them.
"I don't think they were ever very supportive of them, and I think there was always an air of hostility. I don't think there was any call for them to come in at that time, that's my own opinion. I think there were enough police on the ground to deal with the troubles, and it was the people who got them in the first place who weren't happy with them."
A former member of the UDR, the DUP councillor experienced the Troubles here first hand when he was shot on his way to work 26 years ago. It was a time of high tensions across the North with the ongoing Hunger Strike, and he reveals that the memories of that morning are still clear to him even now.
"I was a member of the UDR, one of the first recruits to sign up for it and I was in it for almost 15 years, based in Burndennet forest before it closed. I was shot and wounded on May 29 1981 by the terrorists in Strabane. It was at the entrance where the Fir Trees Hotel is now, while I was on my way to work one morning. It was the time of the Hunger Strike, when Bobby Sands died. I had no sympathy for the hunger strikers though because they did it on their own bat. I'd never any bother with the troops or anything, but I suppose Protestant people and Unionist people were stopped at check points and the likes just as anyone else was."
The withdrawal of troops is part of the ongoing "normalisation" process across the North, but the councillor is concerned that the demilitarisation and defortification of police stations only seems to be happening in predominantly Catholic areas.
"It's strange that all the walls and fortification seems to remain in Protestant areas. Take the likes of Dunamanagh for example, where there was never much bother even when things were bad. Those walls were put up to protect the police and the people sleeping inside. Now when the people say they want it taken down they're told that they've no money to do it, but there seemed to be no shortage of money to take them down in Catholic places."
With Operation Banner complete, and the last of the active soldiers having departed the North, the MLA says that he hopes it doesn't prove to be a mistake removing them so relatively soon after an end to conflict here.
"I think they might have jumped the gun a bit, to be honest. Time will tell and I wouldn't judge things too quick, because mind you there's times that things are hot enough in Strabane yet. I hope that it doesn't prove to be the case."
that is a mistake to leave too quick."
