The acting Minister for Justice walked the streets of Rathkeale on Tuesday night in a show of solidarity with locals who called for more gardaí on the beat to tackle a violent feuding in the town.
Minister Simon Harris said any additional garda resources required in Rathkeale “would be forthcoming” to tackle feuding factions.
He pledged that those involved in such violence would be pursued by the State: “No part of this country is beyond the reach of the law”.
Mr Harris, who had direct talks with the head of the Limerick Garda Division, Chief Superintendent Derek Smart, said some additional garda resources had already being provided to local gardai to help them keep a lid on rising tensions between rival factions in the town.
Mr Harris said Monday’s violence was “abhorrent and utterly unacceptable, and will not be tolerated by An Garda Siochana”.
He added that Rathkeale was a “proud town with great people in it”.
Gardaí carrying submachine guns and automatic pistols assisted unarmed colleagues at checkpoints in Rathkeale during the day amid rising tensions.
Increased armed patrols have been deployed to the town since at least six vehicles were written off in a number of ramming incidents on Monday.
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Video footage of the aftermath of the violence showed several cars destroyed and abandoned and what appeared to be a number of machetes left on the road near the damaged vehicles.
Gardaí are investigating several lines of inquiry, with one theory being that the clashes may have been linked to a recent altercation between parties at a pub in west Limerick.
Heavily armed members of the Armed Support Unit (ASU) were assisting unarmed uniformed Garda officers at checkpoints. ASU officers, who were also patrolling the town throughout the day, have been a regular sight in Rathkeale over recent weeks in response to a number of incidents. Weapons were recovered at a property in the town last month, while a mobile home was attacked by men wearing balaclavas and armed with machetes.
Locals say at least three separate groups are involved in the feud, which they fear could result in people being seriously injured or worse.
Sources said gardaí have also been monitoring members of a group from Limerick City, who are not from the Travelling Community, who it is claimed have been attempting to extort land and property from local Traveller families.
One source said at least one local group is suspected of being involved in the importation of drugs from southeast Europe. Gardaí declined to comment on the claims.
Mr Harris said the scenes witnessed on Monday were “absolutely unacceptable”.
“I have been assured an enhanced policing presence will continue to be part of the policing plan over Christmas to ensure peace and order is maintained in the town,” he said. “There is no place for this kind of violence in our society. I know the community in Rathkeale is rightly proud of their town and abhor these appalling acts.”
Minister of State for Higher Education Niall Collins has called for exclusion orders to be imposed by the courts on people involved in the violence.
“It was a truly shocking incident, there was quite a big Garda presence there yesterday evening, local residents are completely shocked and appalled,” the Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne. “Rathkeale is a fine town, some very fine people there, community groups are working very hard to enhance and promote the town.”
Chair of the local joint police committee, Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey, has called for a special meeting of committee members, local TDs and senior gardaí to be held on Friday “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”.
“This has to be rooted out once and for all, and I am calling on the Minister for Justice to come to Rathkeale to walk the town with myself or other public representatives to see exactly what we need here on the ground,” he said.
“We need to arm our gardaí appropriately to deal with this situation – a can of pepper spray is not going to sort this out.”
Gardaí said they were continuing to investigate “the serious public order incident” in Rathkeale on Monday. “No arrests have been made. Investigations are ongoing,” a spokesman said. He appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the incident to come forward and urged anyone with video footage or photographs of incidents to contact the Garda.
Gardaí did not disclose details of the force’s traditional policing plan in Rathkeale for the Christmas period, when the town’s population effectively trebles from 1,400 due to an influx of members of the Travelling Community.
Mr Collins said people returning home for Christmas had prompted the unrest. He said that, at this time of the year, the population “triples or almost quadruples” due to the number of visitors. “That brings about huge challenges,” he said.
Mr Collins said he wanted to hear from Garda management about their policing plan for the town.
Asked whether he supported a call from a local Fianna Fáil councillor, Kevin Sheahan, a former garda, that gardaí should use batons if necessary to disperse those involved in antisocial behaviour, Mr Collins said he did. “I agree, I think the gardaí should use whatever is available to them. I’ve no issue with An Garda Síochána using the resources or the tools or the tactical equipment that is available to them,” he said.
The option of exclusion orders was available to the court if people behave in a manner deemed unacceptable, said Mr Collins. “There are certain members of the Travelling community who are sullying the name of Rathkeale – that is very regrettable. More has to be done to ensure that it does not reoccur.”
Concerns about Christmas were voiced three weeks ago by Cllr Sheahan, who said he had been personally warned that he was a possible target for one of the feuding groups because he raised the issue of rising tensions at a meeting of local councillors.
Calling for an increased Garda presence in Rathkeale in anticipation of Christmas, when large numbers of people return to the area, Cllr Sheehan told a council meeting last month that “law and order has gone out the window” in the town.