This article is from page 24 of the 2011-01-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
AMONG the holiday heroes who keep the county on track are the boys and girls in blue.
In Clare, gardaí worked round the clock for the entire period, with more than 30 gardaí manning the station in Ennis at any one time and three times that many covering the entire 24 hours of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, St Stephen’s Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
In Killaloe, there were between 15 and 20 dedicated members on duty for the entire festive period and other stations had similar rotas. And the need for Gardaí to give up their holiday days in pursuit of keeping the peace was proved when the activity for the period between Christmas Eve and Sunday was reviewed.
The members manned 26 checkpoints across the county, made a total of 63 arrests, dealt with four missing persons – who were all thankfully found – and were called to deal with a number of sudden deaths, none of which are now being treated as suspicious.
They also attended road traffic accidents and mounted checks for speeding and dangerous driving as well as drink driving. They made a total of ten arrests on suspicion of drink driving and of the 34 arrests made in Ennis, 17 were under the Public Order Act.
According the Gardaí nationally, drink driving arrests are down so far and drivers are becoming more compliant with staying within the limits when they intend to get behind the wheel.