‘Palpable fear’ over closure of Broadford Garda Station

RESIDENTS in Broadford are living in fear over the closure of the local garda station at the end of the month, a community activist has warned.

PJ Mason revealed at a public meeting on Monday night there is a “palpable fear” of crime in the community following the shock closure of the garda station.

In addition to a number of robberies over the past year, he said there were two murders in South-East Clare over the past two decades. 

“We have had excellent garda cover from Pat Keane, Liam Hayes and Sergeant Ger Mulqueen, who were very active. There is palpable fear there will be a growth in crime because we are next door to the third-largest city in the country, Limerick City, where there is a lot of crime and because of Broadford’s location as a gateway to East Clare.

“When we go to bed at night, are we going to be woken up by an intruder? Gardaí can only do so much,” he said.

One woman described it as a very “sad” day for Broadford and recalled the successful campaign to get a new garda station when the old one had to be closed.

“There was always a garda in Broadford since we came to live here 50 years ago. He had a specific interest in the locality. There will be no privacy in a place like a hall compared to the garda station,” she said.

Mr Mason described the loss of the garda station as a major loss to the area and expressed fear it would represent the start of a loss of services.

“In another three or four years, will the Government decide to close more garda stations leaving people in the country very vulnerable without presence of garda stations? One extra car is not enough.

If a car is gone to Newport, you will need a car if something happens in Broadford.

“In most cases, people are gone to work and houses are left empty by day. You are depending on an alarm to go off. Then you are depending on someone passing to see the alarm and notify the garda,” he said.

Superintendent John Kerin said he hoped to get an extra car for East Clare area, which will be deployed for the Broadford-O’Callaghan’s Mills area. Broadford will be patrolled by gardaí from the Killaloe and Sixmilebridge garda stations, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Quin, particularly at night time.

Supterintendent Kerin explained there will be an opportunity for local groups to make representations to the Office of Public Works (OPW), who owned Broadford Garda Station, to take over the building.

He requested the community to locate a building where a garda could come two or three times a week for an hour or two to sign forms or to allow people produce documents.

He suggested the community could elect a representative group for the Broadford-O’Callaghan’s Mills area that could meet with garda management once a month to discuss policing issues in East Clare, which illustrated how committed Clare gardaí were to retaining local knowledge.

He said the OPW may decide to offer former garda stations for community use.

In 2012, there were nine burglaries in the Broadford district, 12 other thefts, two thefts from cars in the area and two public order offences.

While the crime figures are very low for Broadford, Superintendent Kerin doesn’t believe this leaves any room for complacency and attributed the statistics to the good work of Garda Keane and his predecessor, Garda Liam Hayes.

Inspector John O’Sullivan said the challenge is to ensure the Broadford area gets the same amount of policing as it did previously, which gardaí were committed to delivering.

Superintendent Kerin joked at the meeting if a wall could be built between Clare and Limerick, they would have a great county.

Noting that some of his children were raised in Limerick, he subsequently apologised for any offence this remark caused unintentionally after a Limerick woman took exception to this remark, describing it as “insulting”.

Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald praised the work conducted by Pat Keane and stressed there was no point in engaging in the blame game as the reality was the Garda Station would not remain open.

Councillor Cathal Crowe expressed disappointment that Deputy Timmy Dooley was the only Oireachtas member to attend after deputies had attended the hall three weeks ago and showed great empathy and understanding. 

Three days later, the closure was announced and Councillor Crowe noted one deputy welcomed it as a progressive step for the county as a result of the new policing plan.

About 12 months ago, it was estimated it would cost €4,000 to keep Broadford Garda Station open and Councillor Crowe said the closure was prevented a year ago as a result of political muscle.

Councillor Cooney said Oireachtas members were not invited to attend this meeting.

Councillor Michael Begley stressed locals should take up the community forum proposal and could raise any policing issue with the council’s joint policing committee.

Garda Pat Keane will be left in the Killaloe Garda District and if he goes to Killaloe station, he still will have responsibility for policing in the Broadford area with back-up from other areas.

Glowing tributes were paid to Garda Keane for his accessibility and the fact he took calls from people even during his time off.

Having lobbied Clare’s three Government deputies, Councillor Joe Cooney stressed they were informed by Minister Shatter there will be no u-turn.

Councillor Pat Burke said it was unfortunate that garda stations are closing in Broadford and Mountshannon and confirmed there was no u-turns.

Sympathy was also expressed to Garda Pat Keane on the death of his father, Jack, Iverstown, Sixmilebridge last week.