Southill native earns Templemore accolade

THE Southill area of Limerick often gets bad publicity but it received a boost yesterday when it was announced one of its own had been named best student at his graduation.

Patrick Aherne, a former employee of Dell Computers, won the Gary Sheehan Memorial Medal for the best recruit at the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary. Gda Aherne won the medal, which is in memory of a garda who died on duty in 1983, because he was deemed to have been the best out of the class of 239 recruits who passed out as fully-fledged members of the force.

“Southill gets bad press at times but there are a lot of good people living there. I was very surprised but, nonetheless, delighted to get this award,” said Gda Aherne. As part of his training he was stationed at Togher Garda Station in Cork “where the gardaí there were of great help”.