Heightened calls for more Garda resources in wake of recent upsurge in feud related incidents

There have been renewed calls this week for additional garda resources to be allocated to Longford following the reawakening of violent feuding between warring families over the past ten days.

The latest and potentially most serious of those took place during the early hours of Monday morning when a young family were lucky to escape from a house after their home was targeted in a suspected arson attack.

Garda Representative Association member from the Longford/Roscommon Division, Dave Conroy said rank and file members were already struggling to uphold law and order as it is.

“We (Longford) had five probationary gardaí brought in at the start of the year, but one member has retired and there are three more due to retire,” he said.

In a further blow, Mr Conroy claimed a number of gardaí from the Roscommon/Longford Division together with officers from Mayo were being lined up for a new Divisional Protective Services Unit as part of ongoing nationwide changes to the organisation.

Read also: Longford is 'so lucky there hasn’t been a fatality’ as violence escalates

Mr Conroy said fears over the Division’s current complement of frontline personnel was made worse over speculation the new unit was being earmarked for Ballyhaunis.

But it is the recent upshot in violence on the streets of Co Longford which has once again sparked calls for government bosses to act.

“There would be serious concerns about safety to our members,” he said.

“There have been three shootings in Longford over the past nine days and there is concerns that if the people carrying these firearms were met by members on patrol that they would be used on them.”

It's not the first time, Mr Conroy has called for additional garda resources to be rolled out across Longford.

Last September, the GRA representative tabled a similar plea after a female officer was forced to sign off from work while attempting to execute an arrest.

Read also: Gardaí investigating five violent incidents in County Longford inside a fortnight