Garda on the charity beat at CoAction
Retiring after more than three decades, Maurice isn’t quite ready to whip out his slippers and smoking pipe.
Instead, he’s opted for a career change at the age of 52, swapping the toils of policing for the challenges of charity.
Next week Maurice will take up the reins as chief executive of CoAction West Cork, an organisation dedicated to meeting the needs of the intellectually-disabled.
“A vacancy came up and I’d had experience in this area in a voluntary capacity for many years and found it very rewarding,” he said.
“I was at a stage where I was eligible to retire from An Garda Síochána, so I decided to go for it.”
CoAction, whose new chair is Mary Bartel, the daughter of deceased sports commentator Micheál Ó Hehir, was the first ‘homegrown’ body in west Cork to address the support gap for those with special needs.
Founded in Bantry in 1974 by a group of parents who wanted to ensure their intellectually-disabled children could be educated in their own community, the group now provides services to more than 330 people in Beara, Clonakilty, Dunmanway, Skibbereen and Bantry.
CoAction’s vision is to enable the intellectually-disabled to reach their full potential through the provision of a local support service, hence the motto A Local Service for Local Needs.
One of Maurice’s major tasks will be to implement the organisation’s capital development plan, costed at €10 million and involving 17 projects.
“Our first priority will be the development of a child and family centre at Dunmanway, including respite services, to give parents a break. We will be hoping to develop a similar centre in Clonakilty,” he said.
A high-needs residential unit is another priority, as well as developing services for the elderly.
Maurice’s new career will be poles apart from his life with An Garda Síochána, which took him as far afield as Cambodia with the UN, and Bosnia with the EU Police Mission.
CoAction is firmly rooted in west Cork, where Maurice has been stationed since 1978, the year he married his wife Pauline, from Co Leitrim.
None of Maurice’s three children opted to follow in their father’s footsteps into policing, but then there was no tradition of joining the force even in his own family. At any rate, policing has become more difficult, he says.
“It’s getting tougher; there are a lot of challenges with the change in demographics; the public is challenging us a lot more, particularly on Saturday nights with drink taken, where you could be attacked at the drop of a hat.
“That respect for authority that was there 30-40 years ago is gone, creating more challenges for gardaí,” he added.
Maurice’s broad experience in the force will stand him in good stead for the challenges that lie ahead.
He’ll head an organisation with a staff of 120, both full and part-time, delivering an array of services for the intellectually disabled.
* For further information phone CoAction West Cork on 027-50114 or email info@coaction.iol.ie
