Gardaí move in after violence shatters peaceful Christmas in Rathkeale

“I’m glad to see the extra garda presence in the town,” said one Rathkeale local. "I just hope they stay until this all ends."

Local sources said there were scenes of “mayhem” in the town Monday.

Rathkeale, in west Co Limerick, looked just like most other country towns celebrating the Christmas spirit, with twinkling coloured street lights and festive trees adoring 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.

Monday’s violent storm spewed debris and what appeared to be machetes out onto the street, cars sandwiched in the collisions were left abandoned as onlookers watched the unfolding horror.

A still photo from a video of the aftermath of violence in Rathkeale. The still photo frame appears to show two machetes (one near undercarriage of damaged vehicle & the other on the road).

Some videoed the wreckage, others appeared unfazed, and more contacted their local politicians looking for reassurance that their wishes for a peaceful Christmas would not be turned into the stuff of nightmares.

Chairman of the local joint police committee, Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey, called a special meeting of committee members, local TDs, and senior gardaí to go ahead on Friday. 

Councillor Adam Teskey in the area where the incidents took place in Rathkeale, Co Limerick. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

The meeting is “to hear what policing plans are going to be put in place and to see if we can come up with a strategy for tackling this once and for all”, he said.

"We need to have a more proactive approach to policing this, we need to have armed responses from gardaí, we need to have more information-gathering in relation to what is happening, and we need to build up an element of trust between members of the force and the general community."

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

More importantly, perhaps, their presence sent a reassuring message to concerned locals.

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

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 fueling 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.

A car that was involved in one of the incidents in the Rathkeale area. Picture: David Raleigh

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 was also being monitored.

Reliable sources suggested that gardaí were examining one theory that the conflict may have begun with 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.