Demolition work started this week on the first of six British army bases along the Co Fermanagh Border to be taken down as part of the peace process in the North.
The base at Killyvilly outside Roslea will be the first to be dismantled and others at Roscor, Mullan, Wattle Bridge, Clonatty Bridge and Annaghmartin will follow. A British army spokesman said the work would probably take some months. "These are hardened structures built to withstand explosions so they are not easy to knock down," he said. The land would be given back to its owners once the bases were demolished.
Nationalists welcomed the dismantling of the bases sited close to Border crossings. Mr Oliver McCaffrey, a community worker in Roslea, said even with the closures, there would be military activity. "We will still have the barracks that looks like something out of Vietnam and if anything, patrolling and helicopter activity has increased."
He accepted it was a sign that things were changing. "People are out taking photos of them, because in 10 years' time, young people won't believe they were ever here. It is good to see the end of them, because they were nothing but hassle. People felt they were in an open prison, with the watchtowers and the fact that they used to close the gates at night so you couldn't get in or out of the town." Mr Tommy Gallagher, an SDLP Assembly member who lives close to the base at Roscor, said its demolition was further reassurance that the peace process was being cemented.
"It was a tremendous inconvenience for local people - the delays, being searched or the fear of being searched. It was always something people had to think of when starting out on a journey," he said.
Some Protestants are concerned to see the bases coming down. Ms Arlene Foster, who has worked with the group Fear - Protestants who were forced to leave Border farms because of IRA threats - said it was seen as premature.
"Given that there seems to be rearming rather than disarming and that dissident republicans are evident in this area, people do feel this is premature," said Ms Foster, a UUP member who has opposed David Trimble's leadership and the implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
The British army spokesman said 41 bases had been closed or demolished since 1995. Troop numbers have been reduced to 13,500 and it is hoped to reduce this to 8,000, the number that would be deployed in a similarsized area in Britain.