Rathkeale: ‘We will do everything we can to support this community’

The acting Minister for Justice Simon Harris walked the streets of Rathkeale on Tuesday night in a show of solidarity with locals who have called for more gardaí on the beat to tackle a violent feud in the town.

Rathkeale, west Co Limerick, looked just like most other country towns celebrating Christmas, with twinkling coloured street lights and festive trees adorning local homes and businesses.

However, the presence of armed gardaí carrying submachine guns, semi-automatic pistols, tasers and wearing face masks was a stark reminder of the violence that erupted here on Monday.

Motorists travelling around the town were flagged down at an armed Garda checkpoint near where several cars were rammed and destroyed.

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Monday’s violent incident caused debris, including what appeared to be machetes, to be thrown out on to the street. Cars sandwiched in the collisions were left abandoned.

Some onlookers videoed the wreckage, others appeared unfazed, and more contacted their local politicians looking for reassurance.

Members of the Garda Armed Support Unit (ASU), dressed in dark clothing and covering their faces, presented a show of strength in armoury.

“I’m glad to see the extra garda presence in the town, because up until recently, it has not been as visible. I just hope they stay until this all ends,” said a local man.

Gardaí did not disclose details of its traditional policing plan in Rathkeale for the Christmas period, when the town’s population effectively trebles from 1,400 due to an influx of members of the Travelling Community.

A Garda spokesman said: “A policing plan for Rathkeale continues in place, commensurate with the current policing need, primarily based on community engagement and high visibility uniform patrols and static checkpoints, supported where necessary by regional units.”

Mr Harris said any additional Garda resources required in Rathkeale “would be forthcoming” to tackle feuding factions. He pledged that those involved in such violence would be pursued by the State: “No part of this country is beyond the reach of the law.”

Warnings were given last November that violence could erupt. Some had forecast that rising tensions between feuding families could boil over.

The list of incidents fuelling tensions in the town had been growing. A Garda car was rammed last October, weapons were recovered in a property in the town in November, a mobile home was targeted by men wearing balaclavas and armed with slash hooks, and gardaí were alerted to reports of shots fired at a car.

On top of all this, a group, not native to the town, suspected of attempting to extort land and property from local Traveller families over the past several weeks were also being monitored by gardaí.

On Monday tensions in the town came to a head – the motive for which gardaí are probing.

Reliable sources suggested gardaí were examining one theory that there may have been an altercation between parties, said to have occurred at a pub outside of Rathkeale, last weekend.

Locals described the town as looking like a “war zone” as grainy mobile phone video footage of the aftermath of Monday’s carnage was shared on social media platforms.

Armed gardaí will continue to monitor potential flash point areas in the town over the coming days, providing support to the visible presence of unarmed uniformed gardaí.

The Minister stood at Rathkeale Garda station and told reporters he had come “to support the community, to stand with the community, and to support the incredible men and women of An Garda Síochána, to thank them for the work that they are doing”.

Flanked by senior gardaí and local politicians, Mr Harris said: “This is a proud town, with great people in it, and we will do everything we can to support the community.”