‘Brazen thugs’ burgled two Limerick pubs

‘BRAZEN thugs’ was how one publican described the thieves who broke into their premises overnight, in one popular tourist spot in County Limerick.

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

Thefts at two public houses occurred overnight in the early hours of Thursday, August 17 while a take-away premises was also targeted.

Garda investigations are ongoing as the thief/thieves were successful in taking cash from all three retail premises.

Bar manager of Bill Chawke’s, Alan Fitzpatrick, said: “You never think it is going to happen to your own pub - the fright we got and for the staff that locked up the night before, we were hoping that we did everything right on our side.

“The way these thieves were able to break in, having no care or sense for others, is just frightening - we are a long time building up that business.”

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 targetting of the pubs.

“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 Chawke family.

“Adare is a beautiful village and it is peak time for tourists.

No (spray) tan lines for brazen Limerick motorists who parked on double yellow while having beauty procedure

“Now, it looks terrible, with the damage that has been done.

“The fact that they left one premises and went straight to another - that is a brazen thing to do.”

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.”

Corroborating that the lack of garda presence in Adare is ‘worrying’ for those who live and work in the village, David Chawke said: “Obviously, it [theft] is a concern because it is a local and rural village but the biggest concern is that there was a great guard there, who has now retired.

“It doesn’t seem like anybody has replaced him, so Adare and other villages around Ireland are essentially left open for criminals to attack.

“There doesn’t seem to be resources there to deal with it, because they know this is going on a while, similar thefts and crimes, but they don’t seem to have the manpower to deal with it,” he concluded.