Rural crime: Farmers take steps to try to put a stop to burglaries and robberies in rural areas

MASS meetings, political campaigns, court cases, government initiatives: 2015 has been a year when rural crime has leaped to the forefront of public awareness amid worry that farmers and other countryside-dwellers are more prone than ever to being targetted by criminal gangs with easy access and local knowledge.

While burglaries and robberies in rural areas, on farms and homes isolated from neighbours and services, have always been a problem in Ireland, it seems that this was the year when the countryside community shouted “stop”.

To quote The Shawshank Redemption, farmers and their associates have decided it’s time to get busy living or get busy dying, and they’ve chosen the former.