The Government could not give a guarantee that electricity supplies would be maintained in the event of politically-motivated industrial action arising from the Drumcree dispute, an official said in 1998.
However, it was also stated that widespread power cuts were not anticipated as power workers “had no stomach to be used as the storm troops in a battle with the Government”.
Newly-declassified state papers reveal the extensive security planning which went in to preparing for “Drumcree IV” during the summer of 1998. This was the first year that the newly-formed Parades Commission ruled that the contentious parade could not proceed along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
