Áilín Quinlan: Find your own room? What an insult to gardaí at Trump event
U.S President Donald Trump at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Co. Clare, in 2023. He is set to visit it next week
At a time when we need them most – the absolute most - the government and garda management give every impression of offering the middle finger to rank-and-file gardaí.
Ours is a society that is now characterised by lawlessness at every age and at every level of every community.
We live in a land of spiralling violence against women.
A place where violent anti-social behaviour and unprovoked attacks on pedestrians have become the norm on our streets, because we haven’t got enough gardaí to provide a constant visible preventative presence.
We have a national roads network which has turned into a giant race-track, with drivers of every age and profession casually smashing speed limits, overtaking on corners and over continuous white lines, tailgating and intimidating other drivers, and generally breaking every rule of the road that was ever written, because there aren’t enough gardaí in the Road Policing Units, or indeed any other unit to get the roads back under the thumb.
Mind-boggling chaos and horrific injuries are being caused regularly by scramblers and e-scooters and lawless thugs driving on pavements and the wrong way down roads because there are not enough gardaí out on patrol.
Young people are displaying utter disregard and disrespect for authority of every kind – including for members of the gardaí.
More than ever, this country needs a strongly-resourced, effective, authoritative, committed, determined, and highly visible ‘don’t mess with me’ police force.
If you haven’t realised that yet, surely the shocking crash that left four people seriously injured and five dead, and which was caused by a carful of teenagers racing down the wrong way on a motorway while the pursuing gardaí were stood down, should give you pause for thought.
And here’s the thing.
In what is possibly the most challenging few years in its life to date, the force is struggling to recruit enough of the right kind of people to its ranks.
The public is not unaware of this.
And yet, I ask you, in that context, what does the government and Garda management do?
They effectively demonstrate to the public and to existing rank and file members of An Garda Síochána their complete lack of support for gardaí and the low priority they accord to members’ safety and well-being.
Gardaí deployed for the U.S President’s upcoming visit have been told they must arrange their own accommodation during the massive security operation to protect Donald Trump, a man, who, let’s be straight about it, is deeply unpopular both here and around the world.
He is a much-loathed politician, a man who many people don’t even want on Irish soil and, for obvious reasons, protecting him constitutes the biggest policing operation in the country this year.
Yet, at more or less the last minute, at a time when the dogs in the street know that accommodation in the Doonbeg area and all around it was long ago fully booked by golf fans attending the Irish Open, police have been told to find their own rooms in order to work at the event, which runs from September 9-14.
This is a region where the demand for accommodation is currently so high that hotel prices are running well in excess of €1,000 within driving distance of the Doonbeg golf resort. But the amount the gardaí can claim back for their accommodation is much less than that.
Are you kidding me? Are you seriously, honestly kidding me?
This is about the government and garda management waving a giant red flag in the faces of gardaí, unwisely dismissing their right to be treated as crucial and esteemed professionals.
How long have we known the Irish Open is happening? How long have we known that Mr Trump is coming? How long has this been categorised as a so-called ‘extraordinary event?’
And now a local community group has to step in with a widely publicised appeal for local residents to accommodate officers.
How utterly, totally embarrassing. Cringe-making paddywhackery of the worst kind.
Despite the fact that this massive event has been signalled for months, the Department of Justice and garda management failed to arrange accommodation for those providing Mr Trump’s security, instead instructing them (almost as an afterthought) to find their own accommodation.
In an area where every room to rent within a 50km radius is upwards of €800 a night, and there is a screaming lack of availability of reasonably-priced accommodation within 100km of Doonbeg.
“We got a provisional duty document yesterday,” said one anonymous message that came my way last week.
“Rest days cancelled. Shifts changed. Told we’ll get travel.
“No accommodation. Organise it yourself. Have to travel up and down every day doing a 7am to 7pm shift. For a few days. About a two-hour commute each way each day.”
I’m gob-smacked by the total shambles the Department of Justice and Garda management has made of this.
Their jaw-dropping decision has been underlined by the fact that local people are stepping in to help.
A community appeal has been launched for people to put up gardaí being sent to County Clare for Trump’s visit. My God.
“Accommodation needed for gardaí,” the appeal says.
“Gardaí being deployed to the Doonbeg area for the Irish Open week are looking for accommodation from 9-14 September.
“If you have a spare bedroom, B&B room, or other suitable accommodation, please consider listing it on the Doonbeg Fáilte Fest Accommodation Page at a reasonable rate for those working during the week,” the post said.
This is a head-in-the-hands moment for Justin Kelly, Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, and Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan if there ever was one.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so is this the writing on the wall for the hopes of those of us who actually believed that these two men had the ability to improve things in the force?
App?
