Limerick publican expresses frustration over ‘brazen thugs’ who robbed premises

‘BRAZEN thugs’ was how one publican described the thieves who broke in to their premises overnight, in one popular tourist hotspot in rural Limerick.

Three robberies over the last week of commercial premises’ have sparked ‘fear’ and garda investigations in Adare.

Two thefts of two individual public houses occurred overnight in the early hours of Thursday, August 17 at approximately 2:30am/2:45am.

Limerick gardai investigating two connected burglaries

“What are we going to do, hand the country over to thugs to let them run it?,” asked a frustrated David Chawke, a member of the Chawkes family. 

“Adare is a beautiful village and it is peak time for tourists - now, it looks terrible with the damage that has been done. The fact that they left one premises and went straight to another, that’s a brazen thing to do.”

These burglaries are the latest in a series of criminal offences in the busy Limerick village, following another report of robbery at a fast-food premises on Tuesday, August 15, two days prior to the double theft.

Gardaí investigations are ongoing, as the thief/thieves were successful in taking cash from all three premises on both occasions.

This chain of violent thefts in rural Limerick follows the news that there are 278 guards in Limerick per 100,000 population, which is slightly more gardaí than the national average.

Despite these figures, local councillor and chairman of the Limerick Joint Policing Committee, Cllr Adam Teskey condemned the recent crime spree in Adare and said that the gardaí being  understaffed is ‘part of the problem’ and that residents and business-owners in the area are now ‘living in fear’.

“The government is asleep at the wheel, in my opinion. We are heading for a lawless society, I’ve been saying this for years, and to date, it has fallen on deaf ears.

“This act of crime has to be dealt with and immediately addressed Adare and other towns need a full time Garda presence.”

Continuing by outlining the bigger issue of lack of gardaí present, Cllr Teskey said: “We have a serious situation in rural Ireland where an Garda Síochána is inadequately resourced, between retirements like in Adare, lack of recruitment, and morale of the rank at an all time low.

“The minister and commissioner need to address this immediately, as the new proposed rostering is not, in any way, going to address the lack of resources but only add further to an already exhausted force.”