The dismantling of two watchtowers in the North is of symbolic significance, writes Gerry Moriarty
All yesterday morning and early afternoon the British army Puma helicopters were flying sappers and journalists to the Cloghogue watchtower on the south Armagh hill overlooking Newry on the main Dublin-Belfast road.
The white-helmeted sappers, or army engineers, were starting the dismantling work on the post. We journalists were present to observe and report on what should have been part of a great overall political package that brought closure to the conflict in Northern Ireland.
This was the beginning of the demilitarisation element of the Joint Declaration. Assembly elections and the end of the IRA war were two other key elements, but as the past frustrating weeks of negotiations have shown, those particular chapters of the declaration have yet to be concluded.
Nonetheless, normalisation would proceed in the hope that the rest would follow.
Sparks flew as the Royal Engineers set their electrical cutting equipment to the steel structure surrounding the tower. They also worked with their drills and hammers, and where these wouldn't do, they applied their boots and their brawn to break down the large green sheets of steel.
There is a fair old down-draught from the huge rotary blades of the Pumas, the force of which had earlier flattened one of my colleagues. The officer in charge of reporters was therefore mindful to avoid further mishaps.
We were instructed to keep down as other choppers landed on the hillside and otherwise do as she ordered. "When I say move your arse, I mean it," she added, and who could disobey.
Interviews were conducted against the noise of the landing or circling craft, the dismantling equipment, and the wind, rain and hail. In the brief periods of sunshine we were granted a glimpse of the wonderful landscape, the south Armagh hills, the Mourne Mountains, and Carlingford Lough.
The fact that Cloghogue, as well as the Tievecrom watchtower a few miles away on another hilltop near Forkhill, are first to be toppled was of some symbolic significance. Cloghogue, after all, is the most visible of the towers, and known to everybody who has travelled between Dublin and Belfast.
Maj Laurence Quinn said it would take up to 18 months to restore Cloghogue to a greenfield site but that the demolition work itself should be finished in three to six months. "It's quite a big operation. In all, between Cloghogue and Tievecrom, 650 tonnes of materials and stores have to be removed by air and road," he explained.
The area around the watchtower is a world onto itself. Soldiers keep lookout from the sangar on top of the tower while those off-duty can avail of a gym, or cook, shower, watch television, or contact the outside world via the Internet in another steel structure at the foot of the tower.
Soldiers from the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment are working a three-week shift at the tower, and will be among the last soldiers to occupy the two locations.
"Newry is lovely at night when it is all lit up," said Corp Andy Bisson. During his time-off hours he was able to watch the conclusion from on high of the English Premiership. It seems like a desperately boring and miserable job but, says Corp Bisson, "you make do with what you have got". As we spoke to the soldiers below on the roadside, Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness was giving a guarded welcome to the start of the work.
Earlier, Mr William Frazer, whose UDR soldier father and four other family members were murdered by the IRA, was held briefly by troops and cautioned by police when he protested with four supporters at the dismantling. "It's too soon. The threat still exists," he said.
UUP councillor Mr Danny Kennedy agreed. It was "utter folly" to scale down security while there was a real threat from republican dissidents, he said.
SDLP councillor Mr John Fee said the removal of both military installations would be a welcome relief to people living and working near them. "Let me be very clear about Cloghogue, it should never ever have been there. It never really had any real security function. It was built to be highly visible in physical terms and in political terms."