the Troubles<\/a> the heavily fortified Crossmaglen base was a constant target for republicans in south Armagh.<\/p>\nSitting in the centre of the nationalist village, the imposing structure was a target of many gun, bomb and other attacks.<\/p>\n
Police and military personnel were also at risk when travelling to and from the base, with many casualties inflicted in the wider area.<\/p>\n
A caged sanger linked to the base, which dominated Crossmaglen main square for more than two decades, was named after British soldier James Borucki (19) who was killed when a bomb left on a bicycle detonated close to the barracks in August 1976.<\/p>\n
The sanger was targeted by the IRA several times, including by improvised flame throwers in the early 1990s, before it was dismantled in 2000 as the peace process evolved.<\/p>\n
When the RUC and British army stopped using mobile patrols in south Armagh in the 1970s, the only way in and out of Crossmaglen was by air.<\/p>\n
In the years that followed the IRA launched numerous gun attacks on military helicopters across the region, including several aimed at flights in the immediate area of Crossmaglen.<\/p>\n
The confiscation of land belonging to local GAA club, Crossmaglen Rangers, in the 1970s fuelled ill feeling between many locals and the security forces.<\/p>\n
The British government announced plans to return the ground to its rightful owners in 1999 and the last British soldiers left the base in 2007.<\/p>\n
![\"Simon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4VH2P7CE2ZJ3RLTHV7G2TLC2DA.jpg\")
Simon Byrne posed with armed PSNI officers in Crossmaglen <\/p>\n
There was controversy in 2019 former PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne posted a photograph on Twitter of himself with heavily armed officers.<\/p>\n
The incident prompted a review of policing in the area, which recommended the base should close.<\/p>\n
At the time Mr Byrne said the station was \u201can emblem of the past\u201d and had \u201cno place in modern policing\u201d.<\/p>\n
A decision to now dispose of the station, along with the six other sites, was taken by the Policing Board last month.<\/p>\n
Members of the oversight group had previously heard that it cost \u00a31.24m annually in running and maintenance costs for the seven sites.<\/p>\n
Board chair Brendan Mullan said that \u201cin seeking the board\u2019s approval to dispose, assurance was given on community engagement plans to negate any negative impact in terms of the delivery of local policing or access to police services resulting from the disposal of the designated sites\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that assurance was also provided that \u201cno strategic risk to future accommodation needs or demand in relation to designated sites has been identified\u201d. <\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the PSNI said: \u201cAs per recommendation 6 of the South Armagh Policing Review, options for the site closure of Crossmaglen Police Station are currently being explored and progressed to enable its future disposal. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Crossmaglen Police Station is no longer open to the public, it remains at present, an operational station for police officers.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PSNI has been given the green light to sell off one of the most attacked RUC and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,79,79441,237000,62392,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,30,18479,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-553651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-business","tag-co-armagh","tag-crossmaglen","tag-dissident","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-psni","tag-the-troubles","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116811435621408667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LSUQD5O2VVOU7AZ7ODLSUB57KU.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Jeffrey](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/TRFAQSEQP5FR5MIG5IWCCVNE6M.jpeg\")
<\/a>![\"Workmen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/KFHCACTO5RN75MKIE2VB6YLCIY.jpg\")
Workmen begin dismantling the last remaining British army watchtower in Crossmaglen, south Armagh, in 2007. Picture by Mal McCann. <\/p>\n