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Gardaí at the State funeral of Garda Tony Golden in Blacktock, county Louth, last week. Niall Carson/PA

Majority of gardaí moved to Dundalk are from most depleted division

16 of the 27 gardaí temporarily transferred to Louth are coming from the Cavan/Monaghan division.

THE MAJORITY OF gardaí who have been temporarily transferred to Louth to address resourcing issues are coming from the most depleted division in the country.

It was confirmed in recent days that the Emergency Response Unit and 27 gardaí have been deployed to Louth in response to the murder of Garda Tony Golden. Most of them have been sent to Dundalk.

Now it has emerged that 16 of these additional gardaí are coming from the Cavan/Monaghan division, which suffered the largest depletion (22%) in garda numbers since the moratorium on recruitment.

‘Overworked and overstretched’

GRA representative for the division, James Morrisroe, told TheJournal.ie that no one is suggesting additional resources are not needed in Dundalk but this move has now left his district in an even worse state than it was before.

“I absolutely accept Dundalk are totally understaffed and probably need two or three times what’s being sent but what’s happening is they’re begging off Peter to pay Paul,” he said.

Who’s going to do the work of the 16 that are gone now? They’re already overworked and overstretched.

Vulnerable

Though he said the Louth area is busier in terms of cross-border crime, “criminality on the border doesn’t stop at Dundalk”.

Officers in the Cavan/Monaghan division are also dealing with gangs moving across the border and the related criminal activity. Now this move has left them feeling “vulnerable and exposed”, he added.

The problem comes down to a failure to recruit adequate numbers of new gardaí according to the GRA representative, with overall numbers down from 14,500 in 2010 to around 12,000 now.

Read: IRA mole in garda ranks? Gardaí say they are ‘examining the content’ of Sunday newspaper report>

Related: ‘We were just beginning to feel safe again’: A quiet, pretty village shaken by tragedy>

Garda Tony Golden: ‘A hero, a gentle giant, a rock, an idol… you will never be forgotten’>

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52 Comments
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    Mute Dearbhla Russell
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    Aug 8th 2017, 1:33 PM

    Poor girl. If this is true the sentence will be minimal…to add to her distress.
    Worrying trend of assaults lately. And punishments are silly.
    I hope she will be ok.

    163
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    Mute Nameless
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    Aug 8th 2017, 2:15 PM

    Totally unrelated to this story,but how come on Facebook the journal post the story of the chap stabbed to death & anyone can comment on it but nobody can comment here.
    Regardless of the fact Facebook may have different rules.The main reason i see comments not allowed on the journal is for legal reasons,then why bother to post them on Facebook if it has legal ramifications ? surely the eyes of the law don’t care if its the comment section on the journal or Facebook.

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    Mute Warthog
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    Aug 8th 2017, 3:01 PM

    Young as 10 are allowed out of the premises unsupervised. Toilets are unsupervised where a lot off the action takes place. OK I could go on. But my heart goes out to that poor girl and her family. They will get the toerags who have done but that won’t alleviate the pain for this young girl

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    Mute Warthog
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    Aug 8th 2017, 3:02 PM

    @Warthog: How do I know this? Firstly I have a 12 yr old daughter. Secondly i have direct information from othet students, guards and bouncers. Parents are failing on their duty og care by letting their children go to these money grabbing very poorly supervised events. People should be arrested. We have a youth club underage disco where we have parents montitoring everything. Parents have to collect their children. While at the disco they are not allowed out the door unless a parent is their to collect them or they are with one of the supervising parents.

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    Mute Warthog
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    Aug 8th 2017, 3:13 PM

    @Warthog: Messed up on the word count and lost first part of my first message… Young as 10…
    Was saying before that is that these underage discos are “sex events “. Alcohol, some drugs are taken before the discos. Girls go commando. Slut runs of different varieties are normal as is the swooping of different bodily fluids. The supervision is non existent. These events need to be stopped or come under a whole new set of “care” rules. All these places want Is cash as they dont give a damn aboutvthe kids.

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    Mute Grotmaster
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    Aug 8th 2017, 4:25 PM

    @Warthog: WTF is a “slut run?”

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    Mute Nick McCarthy
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    Aug 8th 2017, 5:28 PM

    @Warthog: Ah yes I remember being 10 years old during summer time: video games, bit of soccer, riding our BMXs round the neighbourhood, and when we were too tuckered out from all that we’d snort a few lines bought with saved up pocket-money and get in the finger-bang queue down the local sex event

    Sure a bit of hyperbole never hurt anyone

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    Mute John Dman
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    Aug 8th 2017, 7:17 PM

    @Warthog: ya a friend of mine does security, and it’s truly shocking what goes on at these events. They can’t control them. And these are seasoned security personnel.

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    Mute Dearbhla Russell
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    Aug 8th 2017, 8:04 PM

    @Warthog: surely you are thinking of an older age group?? I find your comments a bit disturbing. I run a disco for 10 to 12 year olds. NONE of that happens. Where are you talking about?
    Slut runs??? Wtf? Disgusting turn of phrase.

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    Mute Steve Salmon
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    Aug 8th 2017, 1:42 PM

    Its being reported as a gang-rape in other media. but not here.

    60
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