An Cosantóir

23 HISTORY OF FINNER CAMP was reached. The Battalion has a rich history of overseas deployment, and personnel from Finner Camp have served with a myriad of different UN Missions over the course of Ireland's involvement in international peacekeeping over the last thirty years. Finner Camp has witnessed significant upgrades to its facilities and infrastructure, including the construction of a new NCO's Mess and Unit HQ buildings in 2000 and 2010 respectively. On 30 April 2009 the 28 Inf Bn was awarded the Freedom of Donegal County in recognition of its long-standing service and commitment to the area and its people. What began as a temporary training camp is now home to a modern, well equipped and well- trained infantry battalion. permanent service, and the Dáil declared a state of Emergency on 7 June 1940. In September 1940, 17 Bn was activated in Athlone and posted to Finner Camp. Emergency orders were revoked on 15 May 1945 and Finner Camp was once again demobilised. The fifties and sixties saw the camp mainly used for FCA training and competitions. The Camp came to life again in the sixties with the renewed IRA campaign along the border and in Northern Ireland. In 1969, the then Taoiseach Jack Lynch, ordered border posts to be occupied in the wake of extreme civil unrest in the North. As a consequence, a local HQ was established in Rockhill with temporary tentage, and a field hospital also erected in nearby Letterkenny. Finner was to witness significant change from the FCA role it fulfilled heretofore. The increasing civil unrest in Northern Ireland eventually became the catalyst for the permanent occupation of Finner Camp. On 1st September 1973, the 28 Infantry Battalion was established as part of an effort to strengthen border operations. At its inception, the 28 Infantry Battalion was the largest Unit in the army, had the longest length of border to protect, and had the largest area of operations. The primary role of the battalion was to provide aid to the civil authority, they conducted searches and patrolled the border area frequently until the Good Friday Agreement Ballyshannon IRA members formed at Finner Camp on the day of Handover Raising the flag during summer training in Finner Camp

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