“As long as it’s not another PR stunt, I’d give it a cautious welcome,” says Robert O’Shea from Littleton, one of the organisers of last month’s mass meeting on rural crime in Thurles. He says any measures introduced by the Government to crack down on burglaries are welcome.
Mr O’Shea, whose farm workshop was targeted by a gang last year, lives a few kilometres from Killenaule, Co Tipperary, where seven men broke into the home of Mark and Emma Corcoran and their three daughters and terrorised them during the night two years ago. The case received widespread publicity at the time and again when the perpetrators were jailed recently for terms ranging from 12 years to 20 years.
Passing sentence at Clonmel Circuit Court, Judge Thomas Teehan said the crime had “shocked an entire nation” and was an affront to the law-abiding citizens of Ireland.
The main issues Mr O’Shea wants to see addressed include more resources for the Garda, tightening of the bail laws, electronic monitoring of repeat offenders and collection of fines at source. “Hopefully, these are going to be carried through. I hope it’s going to be the law sooner rather than later because the level of fear in rural Ireland, and urban Ireland, is very great at the moment. People don’t feel safe in their houses.”
Killenaule-based Fine Gael councillor John Fahey, who knows the Corcoran family, says any stronger measures introduced to tackle such crimes were welcome. “I’d be hoping that the Corcoran thing was an isolated incident. Most of the burglaries aren’t as vicious as that, that was a very vicious event.”
He adds that one of the main concerns among people was the amount of crime being carried out by repeat offenders and suspects free on bail.
“I’m involved in a text alert system in Fethard and Killenaule, and we’re trying to get planning permission in Fethard to put up cameras and when we have it done in Fethard, we’ll move on to Killenaule,” Mr Fahey says.
“If there were cameras in places like Horse and Jockey, when you come off the motorway, and Littleton and Ballinure and Ballynonty, that would be a great addition to the guards. You will only beat them with technology.”
The Corcoran family solicitor, Clonmel-based Kieran Cleary, says the Minister for Justice’s proposal to extend electronic monitoring of suspects was “satisfactory” and welcome. “It does work, I’ve seen it. I’ve followed the history in other countries. It works magnificently to the detriment of the accused,” he says. “If they [suspects] are innocent, then they’re innocent, but if they’re found where they shouldn’t be, they’re immediately taken into custody and their bail is forfeited.”
Mr Cleary has also called for heavier driving penalties for anyone found in a car which was used for the commission of a crime. “If you’re convicted of a serious offence and you have either driven a vehicle or been a passenger in a vehicle in a crime and an injury has taken place to a person, then you are suspended from driving for the rest of your life. If you do drive, it’s a mandatory sentence of three years.”