GAA and IFA in rural policing in New Year

By TONY GALVIN AS part of the ongoing fight against crime in rural areas, it is planned to get the GAA and the IFA involved in a new community awareness programme, which is being supported by Muintir na Tíre and An Garda Síochána. A spate of raids on rural homes has created a renewed awareness of the need for communities to play an active role in helping to police their own areas, and a recent meeting of the Co Galway Joint Policing Committee (JPC) held in County Hall heard a report on how the GAA and IFA, with their broad network of branches, can provide invaluable support for such initiatives. There have been several pilot security programmes initiated nationwide and the IFA has been active in many of these. It is hoped that the IFA will team up with the GAA and put structures in place around Co Galway in 2013, with the co-operation and support of Muintir na Tíre and the Gardai.[/private] It is planned to hold a series of meetings around the county in the New Year, with branches and clubs putting structures in place to make the organised safeguarding of communities easier. It is felt that as the IFA and GAA are represented in almost every parish in the county, they are ideally placed in this regard. The community aspect of these organisations, it is also felt, dovetails with the ethos of Community Alert. The JPC meeting was told there are now 87 Community Alert groups operating in the seven Garda Districts in the Galway Division, but the hope is to expand this network with the involvement of the larger organisations. One option being considered is that the IFA could make an official application for funding for training from bodies such as Galway Rural Development. A number of rural development companies have already supported programmes designed to enhance security. The parish phone concept, which has been so successfully deployed in the Newbridge area, has impressed the JPC members and the hope is that this can serve as a model for others. In Newbridge a volunteer holds a designated phone. Local people know the number and use it to report any suspicious activity. The Gardai liaise with the designated holder of the phone and can either advise on what action to take or send a patrol car out to investigate. Muintir na Tíre is heavily involved in promoting this concept and it is expected to see it spread out across the county in the coming year. The community co-operation model will be outlined and developed at Community Alert meetings next year. The IFA in Co Galway has already called on residents of rural communities to become more vigilant and to assist the Gardai by reporting suspicious activity, especially the movement of unfamiliar vehicles in their areas. In particular they are warning farmers who might let security lapse while they try to work around bad weather, that criminals don't mind the rain and know there are rich pickings to be had when their victims are busy and distracted.[private]