A BBC TV crew, filming a story on pig smuggling in November, 1969 had to be rescued by Dundalk Gardai after an angry crowd confronted them on a small Border road.

The crew had been accompanied by a team of National Farmers Association (NFA) vigilantes who were manning Border roads day and night to try and stem the almost stampede of Northern pigs reaching factories in the south and causing a slump in prices for the Republic's farmers.

Various ingenious methods were devised by the smugglers to bring the pigs over the Border, the most news worthy being the tunnels which were built under the Border.

The TV crew and reporter, Bernard Falk were filming one such tunnel near Edenappa on the Northern side of the Border. It was built with old railway sleepers and led to a shed on the Southern side of the Border in Co. Louth.

The crew had just completed their filming when a number of local men surrounded them and demanded that the film be destroyed. They also claimed that the crew had been filming on private property and were therefore trespassing.

But the Director of the BBC crew, John Pennycate pointed out that they were careful not to enter private property and that he had no intention of handing up the film.

When one of the local men offered £15, the price of the film, Mr. Pennycate indicated that he had no authority to sell the film.

The situation was getting very ugly and a member of the NFA decided to ring the Gardai in Dundalk who rushed to the scene in patrol cars and motor bikes.

There were angry exchanges between the Gardai and the local men, but once the Gardai determined that the cars belonging to the BBC crew were on the Republic side of the Border they escorted the cars into Dundalk.

Gardai then mounted a guard on the hotel room where the BBC crew processed the film and escorted them to Carrickmacross where they booked into another hotel for the time it took them to complete the film.