Long service awards for firemen

Eleven Clare firemen with a combined service record of 260 years were honoured at the annual National Long Service Awards Ceremony held last weekend.
Martin Rodgers, a sub-station officer with Killaloe Fire Brigade and Joe McMahon, a firefighter with Kilkee Fire Brigade, were in receipt of 30-year awards.
An additional nine other service members were in receipt of 20-year awards. They include Adrian Kelly (Clare chief fire officer); Brian Rudd (firefighter, Ennis Fire Brigade); Robert Fitzgerald (sub-station officer); Frank O’Gorman (firefighter) and Cormac Quinlivan (firefighter of Kilkee Fire Brigade; Paddy Doyle (firefighter, Scariff Fire Brigade) and Johnny Byrne (firefighter), Joe Tuohy (firefighter) and Paul Mollaghan (station officer of Killaloe Fire Brigade).
The National Long Service Awards scheme is administered on the minister’s behalf by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management.
The award, in recognition of 20 years’ service, takes the form of a medal bearing the traditional logo representation of the fire service – a helmet and crossed axes. The medal ribbon bears the Irish national colours, with a central column in red to represent the fire service. The 30 years’ award is a representation of a flame in emblematic form. Both awards are accompanied by an appropriate certificate.
Presenting the awards, Fergal O’Dowd TD, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, stated the awards scheme is the Government’s way of honouring local authority fire service personnel for “being there over all the years, for being prepared to respond to calls for help, at all times, and in all weathers”.
Congratulating the recipients of awards, Deputy Mayor of Clare Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald said the commitment and professionalism of these long-serving firefighters is indicative of the highly experienced personnel employed by Clare Fire and Rescue Service.
Chief fire officer Adrian Kelly stressed Clare County Fire and Rescue Service has a proud tradition of service to the people of Clare.
“Presently, our fire and rescue staff are among the most highly trained in the country and we are continually pushing to raise staff training levels even further. We remain fully committed to providing a multi-skilled approach not alone to the areas of firefighting but also to rescue and fire safety engineering. We are available for emergency response to the community 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.