New Longford garda inspector vows to ‘hit ground running’

Longford’s policing ranks have been boosted by a new inspector with the District also bidding farewell to one of its most respected officers in a series of new promotions across the force.

Inspector Paddy McGirl, who is a lead state prosecutor at Longford District Court level, was promoted from the division’s sergeant ranks in recent days.

He is expected to move from his current post in Roscommon to Longford Garda Station on January 12.

Inspector McGirl said he is looking forward to “hitting the ground running” in the new year and bringing his 12 years of sergeant’s experience to bear.

“I am delighted,” he told the Leader this week.

“I am looking forward to getting started. There are a lot of very good (policing) initiatives in Longford at the minute and bringing the experience I have from the courts.

Inspector McGirl said Longford has steadily managed to counterbalance the negative press it has garnered in recent months thanks to a “proactive” approach led by senior management and Longford Superintendent Jim Delaney.

“Superintendent Delaney has been very proactive in enforcing bail checks and other measures and I am fully behind that and intend to continue in the same vein by reinforcing that and ensuring arrest warrants are highlighted in the courts,” he said.

His promotion and imminent transfer also sees another long serving sergeant Lionel Mullally switch from Longford to Bailieboro.

The well respected and decorated officer has no less than three decades of service with the Gardaí to his name, the last 15 of which was amassed in Longford.

Prior to that, Inspector Mullally served ten years in Granard with spells in Dublin and Monaghan preceding those.

Having been front and centre behind the continuing rise of Longford’s community policing unit, Inspector Mullally is perhaps best known for his co-founding of Community Text Alert in North Longford, an anti-burglary initiative which has since been replicated nationwide.