€7k stolen from woman’s home as Garda station closes

The theft of €7,000 from an 84-year-old woman in a rural part of north Kerry on the same day as the closure of the local Garda station has left a community in fear.

The woman, who lives alone, had the money stolen while she attended Mass.

Parish priest, Fr Anthony O’Sullivan, says there is fear in the community that this could become a regular occurrence following the closure of the Garda station earlier this week. The woman had been saving the money for a number of years.

“There is unease in the community since the station closed and the robbery has not helped to allay that. The local gardaí here gave great service, and there was an added feeling of security when the station was open. That has now been taken from the people living here.”

There was a public outcry when the announcement was made to close Brosna Garda station, but local pleas failed.

Brosna has one of the lowest crime rates in the country and the station had been open for 140 years, serving the people of the rural north Kerry village.

Local man Thomas Roche points to the fact that they are some distance from the closest Garda station. “If we do need to contact the gardaí, the nearest station to us now in Brosna is 30km away.

“Coupled with the fact that we are surrounded by forestry and wood land on three sides of the village, we certainly feel exposed to criminal elements.”

Meetings have taken place in the past week with the intention of setting up a text message alert amongst the community.

“What we hope to implement is a text message system in Brosna whereby people will text a number if they see suspicious activity in the village. We have a considerable ageing population in the village and we have to protect ourselves,” according to Timmy O Sullivan, chairman of the local community alert group. “The majority of young people are gone to Australia and America. Before the community alert was a help in deterring criminals, but it’s a necessity now.”

Although it hasn’t been finalised, it is successfully in operation in the neighbouring parish of Ballymacelligott. There, over 340 people are engaging with the text message system which is connected to the nearest Garda station.

Mr O’Sullivan is hopeful that people in the community can come together to protect each other.