No fanfare... but after 38 years a chapter of history is closed

News Focus: It was expected to take weeks. Now, finally, soldiers have left Northern Ireland, writes Gerry Braiden.

As midnight passed there was none of the fanfare of the Black Watch's withdrawal from Hong Kong a decade ago, nor the frantic drama at the US Embassy in Saigon in 1975 or the urgency or heroism of Dunkirk in 1940.

Instead, the withdrawal of the British Army from Northern Ireland, with the exception of a peacetime garrison of 5000, has been met with the quiet satisfaction that yet another massive stride has been taken towards the normalisation of society on the edge of the Union.

Like most military campaigns, Operation Banner was expected to last months, if not weeks.

One dissenting voice was that of the man who sent them in, the then Home Secretary, "Lucky" Jim Callaghan.

It started with an emotional call from nationalist West Belfast MP Gerry Fitt, made from a betting shop public phone, to bring in the troops to protect the beleaguered Catholic population during inter-community rioting in August 1969.

Callaghan said he would have no problem getting them in. The problem, he said prophetically, would be getting them out.

The Troubles, which appalled, perplexed and even bored the rest of the UK, had begun.

It would be 38 years and 300,000 personnel later before the troops withdrew.

For the Army it resulted in the deaths of 763 military personnel by paramilitaries, the stigma of the killings of 14 civilians on Bloody Sunday, shoot-to-kill controversies, curfews, collusion allegations and thousands of bomb attacks and gun battles.

Hard to believe it all started with tea and biscuits for the soldiers in nationalist areas and free drinks in the social clubs of the fiercely republican Ardoyne district.

Yesterday, there was no shortage of individuals prepared to offer their obituaries of Operation Banner.

As home to Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, just south of Belfast, has been the centre of Army operations in Ulster.

Known as a garrison town before achieving city status in 2000, the military has been one of its key employers for nearly 40 years. In the bright sunshine of Lisburn's market day, Bertie Hull, 62, a retired builder's labourer, told how the Army had brought huge benefits.

He said: "There's hundreds of Lisburn folk working up in Thiepval. The Army have always been welcome in Lisburn. It's a good job they came to Northern Ireland because to my knowledge it would have been a bloodbath if they hadn't.

"I think they would rather be here than in somewhere like Iraq. At least if they are sent into somewhere like Belfast they know the place."

His daughter Lisa, 32, home on holiday after moving to Edinburgh six years ago, also praised the soldiers for their behaviour as she grew up.

Ms Hull, a nurse, said: "They did a good job while they were here and I felt sorry for some of the young lads thrown in at the deep end.

"When we were younger we used to see them in clubs. A lot of girls actually married soldiers they met over here."

Ten miles away, in Belfast's republican New Lodge district, Jean McBride has a different take.

Her 18-year-old son Peter was shot dead by two Scots Guards, Mark Wright and James Fisher, in 1992. Both were sentenced to life for murder in 1995 but three years later were released from prison and allowed to rejoin their regiment.

She said: "I can't forgive if they can't come out and say that they murdered my son. I would be able to get on with my own life if they did.

"I find it hard every day to face the day knowing that they are convicted murderers and they are telling me that these two fine young men did nothing wrong.

"It is great to see them pulling out and see things getting back to normality but this is 15 years too late for me and a lot of other people like me. It's a pity they were not pulled out a long time ago."

One of her neighbours is senior Sinn Fein figure Gerry Kelly. He claims military tactics helped persuade many republicans to join the IRA.

He added: "The British military was part of the security response to a situation that was political. It was a response that included torture, shoot-to-kill and collusion with loyalist death squads. The security response failed."

More than any other area in the north, the border areas of south Armagh will notice the withdrawal.

For 20 years massive hilltop towers have dominated the skyline, supplied by a constant stream of helicopters.

Nationalist SDLP Assembly member Dominic Bradley welcomed the ending of Operation Banner one month after British soldiers finally left the border village of Bessbrook in south Armagh.

The Newry and Armagh representative said: "At times it was difficult to imagine the day when they would leave but I am glad that day has arrived.

"In the end of the day their departure was brought about by peaceful democratic politics and not by the use of violence, which at all times did nothing more than lengthen the duration of their stay."

Northern Ireland's police chief Sir Hugh Orde insists his officers can cope without Army support, claiming there had been no reliance at all on back-up from them for many months.

"The world has moved on very quickly in Northern Ireland," he said.

"We have been fortunate to be able to rely on additional resources. We don't need them any more.

"For the past two years we have not deployed any military during the marching season, in stark contrast to 2005 when more than 1000 military colleagues were right on the front line working very hard with my officers in some of the worst rioting we have seen."

But there remain some who believe things may be moving a little too quickly and who warn against complacency.

Jeffrey Donaldson, the Democratic Unionist Party MP for Lagan Valley and a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, falls into such a camp.

He said: "I think that while a low-level terrorist threat remains in Northern Ireland it is important that the Army retains the capacity to assist the police if required."

However, Mr Donaldson conceded that "by and large" the Army had completed its task.

He said: "Substantial progress has been made but it is our view that we would not have got to the place we are in today with a relative degree of peace had it not been for the contribution of the Army in holding the line during what was a very intensive terrorist campaign."

Long campaign

1969 Troops brought in after police faced inter-community rioting in Londonderry and Belfast.

1970 First serious clashes involved troops in West Belfast riots.

1971 IRA killed first soldier.

1972 Paratroopers shot 13 men dead during march for civil rights in Londonderry. Event became known as Bloody Sunday.

1976 Government announced deployment of extra troops after 10 Protestant workers killed by IRA at Kingsmill, County Armagh.

1979 IRA ambush at Warrenpoint, County Down, killed 18 soldiers. Attack came on same day as Lord Mountbatten died in boat off coast of County Sligo, targeted by IRA.

1982 Republican splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army, killed 17 people at Ballykelly, County Londonderry. Dead included 11 soldiers.

1987 SAS ambushed and killed eight IRA men as they tried to blow up part-time police station at Loughgall, County Armagh. Bomb exploded during Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, killing 11 people.