Rumoured former Provisional IRA training area

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This part of this forest is strongly rumoured where members of the Provisional IRA were trained in various stages of combat circa 1997.
The forest is located merely minutes from an Irish military barracks firing range which makes the location of this activity somewhat bizarre.
People have camped in this part of the forest in the years following 1997 to allegedly find things such as empty bullet shells, knives and camouflage clothing.
Whilst there is no solid evidence to suggest that member of the Provisional IRA did train in this part of the forest, there has been very strong rumours for many years.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_IRA
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   53°11'48"N   6°24'57"W

Comments

  • forest has been cut down since 2008.
  • Me and friends camped here three or four times around 1997-1999. We found a load of bullet shells, camping equipment and places where there was obviously been bonfires. It was unknown to us that the IRA would train here then. Later on, the rumour was it was used by the IRA for training so they could fire bullets when the army were using the firing range accross the way which would disguise the noise somewhat. One evening we made a rash decision to go camping and as our car was nearing the forest as we crossed the small bridge there all we could see was this huge bonfire. We decided not to venture in as we didnt know who it was going to be. It was only later on we discovered it was an IRA training base which no doubt who the bonfire that night belonged too. Lucky we didnt go in...could end up buried in a shallow grave or anything.
This article was last modified 15 years ago