Irish Examiner View: A shame if cross-border co-operation jeopardised by Brexit

The border dividing this island has, since it was established, facilitated all sorts of criminality. Some of it pound-of-butter petty, some of it violent and highly organised.

Last Friday night, in Dundalk, Co Louth, a sophisticated gang targetted two ATMs in a daring cross-border raid, the latest in a long series of these crimes. The gang crossed the border in a convoy that included a truck with a trailer carrying a mechanical digger, an SUV, and at least two cars. Accomplices blocked the entrance to Dundalk Garda Station with two burning cars. There was nothing casual or amateur about the raid.

The raiders loaded the ATMs onto a trailer which was towed away and the rest of the gang escaped in another vehicle. The South Armagh gang, which gardaí say has republican links, fled across the border knowing gardaí could not follow them. However, gardaí had contacted the PSNI and three suspects were later arrested.

It would be a tragedy for the whole island if this kind of co-operation was jeopardised by Brexit.