10th Anniversary of MI5 HQ in Northern Ireland

Published date: 02 Oct 2017

Tuesday 3rd October 2017 marks the 10th Anniversary of the opening of MI5's headquarters in Palace Barracks, just outside Belfast, Northern Ireland. The building was opened in readiness for MI5 to assume responsibility from PSNI for national security intelligence work in Northern Ireland, which formally took effect from 10 October 2007.

In the subsequent ten years, staff have worked in close concert with PSNI, An Garda Siochana and many other partner organisations to manage the continuing threat from Northern Ireland related terrorism.

It is impossible to prevent every terrorist attack, and tragically there have been a number of fatalities since the HQ opened. But we and our partner organisations have also succeeded in preventing hundreds more potential terrorist attacks; made more than two hundred seizures of terrorist material, including weapons and explosives; and secured over a hundred convictions on terrorist charges.