RTÉ Investigates
A military commander of British Army forces in west Fermanagh admitted to cooperating with loyalist paramilitaries in the 1972 bombing of a bridge spanning the border between Co Cavan and Co Fermanagh, RTÉ Investigates has learned.
The Aghalane Bridge had been used by IRA units in a series of 1972 raids into South Fermanagh that targeted security forces, particularly local members of the Ulster Defence Regiment.
In a 2005 oral history interview with the Imperial War Museum, Retired Major Vernon Rees described being approached by Jack Leahy, a unionist councillor from Lisnaskea.
Amid increasing unionist fears about weak security along the southern side of the border, Mr Leahy intimated that loyalist paramilitaries wanted to blow up the bridge.