A British army helicopter lands at Crossmaglen military base during a clash between Armagh and Galway in 1999. Photograph: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker

British army soldiers’ morale was “at a low ebb” in Crossmaglen in South Armagh just months before paramilitary organisations’ August 1994 ceasefire because of the threat posed by more powerful IRA mortars, documents show.

Scores of building workers who carried out work to shield British forces had to be protected for months by hundreds of soldiers and police from April 1994 onwards, Department of Foreign Affairs papers released to the National Archives reveal.

In a briefing for foreign affairs offi

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