Farmers in South Armagh dominated a list of compensation claims made during the 1990s in Northern Ireland against the UK government for animals allegedly killed or injured following actions by the British Army.
“The bulk of claimants would appear to live in South Armagh,” a Stormont department of agriculture official told Toni Carragher, the then secretary of the South Armagh Farmers and Residents’ Committee, in June 1998, following her request for detailed information.
Citing figures given by the ministry of defence from 1994, the official said between April 1st, 1994 and March 31st, 1995, farmers in South Armagh made claims for death or injuries caused to nearly 39,000 animals of all types, by far the highest figure during the 1990s.
In the years afterwards, claims were made for death or injury caused to almost 12,000 animals allegedly as a result of military activity by British soldiers, or aircraft, “including 4,900 chickens in one incident” in 1997, according to the letter released by Northern Ireland’s Public Record Office.
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Compensation was paid to Northern Irish farmers from the 1990s by the Area Claims Office Northern Ireland (ACONI) for common law claims against the ministry of defence, including claims prompted by low-flying military aircraft.
Throughout, however, it was dominated by claims from South Armagh.
In all, nearly £9.5 million was paid in compensation to farmers in the area from April 1st, 1996, to July 18th, 1997, and almost £742,000 between April 19th, 1997 and March 31st, 1998.
By comparison, just £1.87 million and £177,000 was paid in both of these qualifying years to farmers elsewhere in Northern Ireland, including those in places such as Tyrone where there was still significant British military activity.
Delving deeper into the numbers, the files record that nearly £6.2 million was paid to South Armagh between April 1st, 1994, and March 31st 1995, with farmers elsewhere getting £854,000, though the dates of the alleged incidents are not clear from the files.
Between April 1st, 1995 and March 31st, 1996, farmers in South Armagh claimed almost £1,363,000, while their counterparts elsewhere lodged applications that returned £536,000 in compensation.
Claims for damage to buildings and property, excluding animals, led to payments of £183,000 and just over £38,000 in 1994/5 and 1995/6 in South Armagh, while those elsewhere received nearly £17,000 and over £20,600.
Some farmers submitted more than one claim. In Co Armagh, 105 farmers submitted more than one claim in 2000, though the numbers dropped sharply in the years afterwards – to 65 in 2001, 44 in 2002, 33 in 2003 and 20 in 2004, according to information from the ministry of defence.
Three people were prosecuted after 1998 for making fraudulent claims against the ministry of defence: two in 1998 and one in 2002, following the large-scale Operation Saddle police investigation in South Armagh.
The information was gathered with considerable difficulty because files “are not kept exactly” in the form required in reply to questions from Ms Carragher, who campaigned for the removal of British Army posts in South Armagh. She died in 2020.
