Gardaí in one of the most strategic Border stations say they will walk out at the end of this month because of fears for their health and safety.
Gardaí at Dromad station, on the main Dublin-Belfast road, are concerned that the construction of the EU-funded Newry to Dundalk dual carriageway has left them at risk of attack. The rear of the building is just 60m (66 yards)from the Border.
In recent years gardaí in Dromad have been shot at and have been the target of an attempted car bombing by loyalists.
The Garda station, as well as land and buildings beside it, were the subject of compulsory purchase orders to facilitate the new 14km road. For the last three years, gardaí have been waiting for the Office of Public Works (OPW) to find them an alternative home.
The construction of the road is on schedule and while their neighbours moved out, they remain in the rundown and vulnerable semi-detached building.
A major security threat is from a laneway that previously ended 12m from the rear yard; now it runs into the yard from a busy road in Jonesboro, south Armagh. It is an area of the North which is rarely policed by the PSNI. The lane also gives access to three adjoining sheds; two of them are in the South but the third is in the North.
"There may be a peace process but the private cars of the gardaí are constantly under attack and have been broken into at least five times by people who can walk right up to them when they are parked at the rear of the station," said one source. Just over two metres separate the building from a field from where large rocks have been thrown at cars. Earlier this year a Garda patrol car windscreen was smashed.
Garda Representative Association spokesman Det Garda Michael O'Driscoll said: "It is open season on the gardaí because now you can stand in the North and attack the station. The property of the State and of station members is being attacked on a weekly basis. The security is totally inadequate."
Chief Supt Michael Finnegan, of the Louth/Meath division, said he had been put on notice that gardaí were vacating the station on July 31st for health and safety reasons. "We have notified the OPW and our housing section of the situation," he said.