– Life along the Slaney

The recent wave of crime being perpertrated along the costal region of north Wexford raises a lot of questions in relation to garda presence in rural parts of the county.

The sudden rise in violent, armed crimes in the region have put residents and particuary elderly residents in fear for their lives. The residents of Ballycanew, Ballygarret, Kilmuckridge, Courtown  and dozens of other villages in the area are in fear of the next raid and know they are a target for gangs of criminals due to the fact they have no garda presence.

Don’t get me wrong, the gardai who responded to the armed robbery in Kilmuckridge last week, did so with speed and efficiency. There was a large garda presence at the scene within 15minutes of the alarm being raised.

Gardai from Gorey, Enniscorthy and Blackwater all responded to the call from Hammel’s and by all accounts dealt very professionally with the situation and stayed in touch with those affected in the days following the robbery.

There is no doubt that the gardaí working in the county are dedicated and want to protect the people and make sure things like this don’t happen again.

But if we think back, didn’t exactly the same thing happen to exactly the same person in exactly the same post office almost six years ago?

So what has changed in the meantime? Nothing it seems. Criminals know they can pull up to a busy petrol station/supermarket/post office at 4.15p.m. as the school across the road is letting out and  know the garda won’t be anywhere near them for at least 15 minutes.

Now it is possible that a garda stationed down the road in Blackwater would be on the spot sooner, but that’s a slim chance and one the criminals it seems are willing to take.

The possibility that the crimes are being perpertrated by roving gangs of criminals from the capital is one of the possibilities gardaí in Wexford are investigating, but there is a belief among the residents of north Wexford that a undesirable criminal element has relocated to the area and as a result is gaining local knowledge they can pass on to gangs in Dublin.

In recent years there is no doubt the population of north Wexford has swelled and from anecdotal evidence a large porportion of these people are from the capital. Whether rightly or wrongly people seem to have the impression that not all the people who have relocated to the Model County are Model Citizens.

Whether or not these crimes are being carried out by locals or visiting gangs is moot as the garda presence in certain areas is non-existent and therefore an open invitation seem to be extended to anyone looking to exploit the situation.

So the problem is not the fault of the gardai currently working in north Wexford but is down to a question of resources and distribution of those resources. Clearly in the last six years the Celtic Tiger has brought about a huge increase in the populaiton of the area, however it seems as if a similar increase in the number of gardaí patrolling the area has not accompanied the boom.

Many elderly residents in the area have taken things into their own hands and installed closed security cameras in their homes to see who is at their door. They fear for their safety and as the summer approaches and the population of the region swells even further, something will have to be down to ease their fears and deter the criminals looking to take advantage of the situation.