A day out with gardaí from Dún Laoghaire is a special treat discovered Editor John O’Keeffe – professionalism writ large My 91-year-old mother has a name for them. “Lovely young men,” she calls them. I have never quite known who these “lovely young men” were, or indeed if they even existed – that is until I met Garda Seán Sheehy […]

Last month, D/Chief Superintendent Paul Cleary was appointed as the first Head of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau. Editor, John O’Keeffe met the Chief and his team and left with a distinct impression that he had just encountered a very special group of men and women They say height doesn’t matter. They say don’t worry about it John. 5ft […]

As Editor, John O’Keeffe recently discovered, Nenagh Garda Station is more than the sum of its parts and it contributes to both urban and rural policing like few others Nenagh is the largest town in North Tipperary with a tantalisingly uneven population count of 7,995 at the last census and with a District size of some 44,500. It is part […]

This month Editor, John O’Keeffe went to visit the men and women of Arklow Station in the garden of Ireland and found a Frontline embedded in their communities Wicklow crosses the rural and urban divide like few other Districts and Arklow may just be its metaphor. With a population of some 13,000, Arklow town looks up at its larger metropolitan […]

Visiting the beating heart of Cork County, Editor John O’Keeffe couldn’t help but notice a distinct unity of purpose The moment you meet him you’ll like him. That’s always a good start. I’m talking about Superintendent William Duane, chief bottle washer at Mallow Garda Station. And it’s important. To be a well-liked Superintendent is, unsurprisingly, not a given. Duane need […]

John O’Keeffe visited Letterkenny Garda Station and met a group of men and women for whom Daniel O’Donnell should usefully write a song Letterkenny is the type of town that surely we would all like to live in if we knew it properly. Small enough to care but big enough to cope, it exudes all the muscular confidence of a […]

  Despite meeting an exceptionally enthusiastic and professional group of gardaí in Clonmel Station, Editor John O’Keeffe, was truly appalled at the conditions they are expected to work in TIhave visited numerous stations up and down the country, and it is true Sligo and Macroom Garda Stations (to name but two) have not been without their significant woes; certain stations […]

Editor, John O’Keeffe went to visit Balbriggan Garda Station and met with the men and women of ‘the Regular’ There’s something about the word ‘regular’ that seems to send people into the land of nod. The Oxford Dictionary describes it as, “existing or happening repeatedly in a fixed pattern with equal or similar amounts of space or time between one […]