Crossing border to shop in Enniskillen would be clear guideline breach

They wanted to be sure that no-one from Northern Ireland was making unnecessary journey such as travelling to holiday homes in Donegal.

It was a step that sent out a signal to people across the island to take seriously regulations in response to a pandemic.

There were similar efforts to prevent such unnecessary travel within Northern Ireland, and over Easter the PSNI manned checkpoints to stop people travelling to holiday spots such as the north Antrim coast.

In the end there was overwhelming public adherence to the demand that people avoid non essential travel.

It is hard however to envisage the PSNI having been able to mount a checkpoint at the NI side of any road crossings into the Republic without there being a political row.

Today we report on a man from Fermanagh who says that shoppers from the Republic are coming to Enniskillen. Callers to the BBC Nolan show have said the same and the Ulster Unionist MLA Rosemary Barton says that there is a recognition that such travel is happening. Yet when we asked the PSNI about it, they did not say whether they know of such visits.

Enniskillen is 11 miles by road from the nearest border crossing. It would be a clear breach of the social distancing and sacrifices that people are making on both sides of the border if such shopping was happening. If it is, then the PSNI, which on some occasions is reported to have been inflexible with people breaching regulations, must take clear action.

There are also relatively high infection rates in Cavan and Monaghan. It would be just as wrong for people in NI to read too much into such data as it is for people to read too much into what some allege is a higher incidence of Covid-19 in NI.

But it does reiterate the need for prudence all round and no cross border shopping trips unless shops just across the frontier are the closest outlets to someone’s home.

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