Final symbolic changing of guard

By Vincent Kearney
BBC NI home affairs correspondent

The final, official ending of Operation Banner, the longest continuous campaign in British Army history, took place on Friday night. So what now for the Army in Northern Ireland?

Troops regularly supported police operations from 1969 onwards

More than 300,000 soldiers from regular regiments of the British Army served in Northern Ireland during the past 38 years, operating alongside the police in the fight against the IRA.

But that is changing.

On Friday night, senior Army officers and invited guests gathered at Thievpal Barracks in Lisburn to watch the flag of the last operational brigade based there being lowered for the last time.

It was a very symbolic changing of the guard.

Just a short distance away, new accommodation blocks were being built to house members of 19th Light Brigade, what the Army calls a "deployable fighting formation", who are moving from bases in England and Scotland.

They will live and train there, but the streets they will patrol are those of Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots across the world.

"A very significant programme of change has taken place here. From now on we will be here as part of the local community, and not as part of the security forces," explains the outgoing GOC, Lt General Nicholas Parker.

Lt General Nicholas Parker said NI was a "great base"

At the height of the Troubles there were about 27,000 military personnel based in Northern Ireland in more than 100 sites.

In the future, the Army says there will be be no more than 5,000 soldiers in just 10 locations.

The reality is that, at times, the actual number in Northern Ireland could be much, much lower.

If it is decided to deploy 19th Light Brigade as a fighting formation to a foreign war zone, the numbers left behind could be just a few hundred.

A new regional Territorial Army brigade, 38th Irish, is also being established.

It will eventually grow to about 2,300 members, and again will be for use outside Northern Ireland.

Troops could be deployed on the streets again if there is a dramatic deterioration in the security situation.

And the Army has been given new powers of arrest in the event of having to deal with outbreaks of serious public disorder.

But no-one within the Army or the police expects to have to make that call.

Troops are being deployed to other trouble spots like Iraq

While the numbers of soldiers have been dramatically reduced in recent years, and soldiers will no longer have an operational role in Northern Ireland, the Army insists that it is here to stay for the long term.

"Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, we have barracks across the whole of the UK. We need to put our soldiers in those barracks and we will always do so," says Lt General Parker.

"We will manage that as part of an infrastructure plan where this part of the country is just as important as Tidworth or Catterick. This is a great place for us to be based."

The general would like to see the day when soldiers in uniform will be able to shop at their local supermarket and travel to their base on public transport, just like they do in Britain.

That prospect seems highly unlikely at this stage - but then again just a few years ago so did the prospect of the Army saying it no longer had a role to play in Northern Ireland.