‘If people look for me, I will always listen’

Small acts of kindness are commonplace for Trim garda, Edel Dugdale, who is proof that not all heroes wear capes, some wear uniforms – garda uniforms.

“It is about the smaller things in life,” she says. “Sometimes it is just about that little extra smile walking down the street, stopping to say hello and asking someone how they are. That gives people a feeling of ‘they see me’.”

Going above and beyond the call of duty to help is really where Edel comes into her own and she often take time to meet people in need of a listening ear or a helping hand on her days off.

“If people are comfortable talking to me and they look for me, then I will always listen and be there. I always have and I always will,” she says.

“If someone has had the strength to come up to me, then the biggest thing that I can give them back is time. Even if I don’t have the answers for them, or not the answers that they are looking for.”

That line of thought gives Edel an “inner strength and confidence” to proceed in her daily endeavours. She is also mindful of the importance of building social connections in the community so that people look past the uniform and see a person who has empathy and understanding for them.

Until Covid hit, Edel had been working regular shifts at Trim Garda Station for 13 years. Then the opportunity arose to move to Community Policing.

“I jumped at the chance,” she says, because it gave her room to spread her wings into the rural parts of the Trim district to try to help those that were vulnerable and isolated.

Previous to her time as a garda, Edel worked in the HSE for 10 years, which first opened her eyes to many challenging life circumstances in society, and that prompted her to become a police officer.

The Westmeath native loves being based in her adopted town of Trim with its strong community spirit, likening it to her hometown of Delvin, where she grew up with her parents, one sister and three brothers.

“I have been very lucky in my life,” Edel says, adding that her upbringing and parents taught her that if she could ever help someone, she always should.

Edel and family, however, suffered their own personal tragedy as her brother Shane lost his life to suicide just before Covid-19 hit.

“This life wasn’t for him,” she says. “We always say that we hope the next one is better.” Edel tries to stay focused on her work, which now involves The Little Blue Heroes – a charity operated by garda volunteers.

Her work with it began in 2020 with a 99-kilometre cycle through nine villages, in her garda uniform, which raised almost €25,000 for Féileacáin – the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association.

She was inspired to undertake the challenge when she stopped a family at a checkpoint in Easter 2020 as they were taking their baby to its resting place following death in pregnancy. This event struck a cord with kind-hearted Edel, who rounded up other frontline staff in Trim including ambulance and fire service to undertake the challenge together.

Edel’s newest endeavour with the Little Blue Heroes, ‘A Run with Rian’, is to raise funds for the family of six-year-old girl Réiltín Fleming from Kildalkey, who was born with a rare condition which has left her deaf, blind and unable to speak, among other disabilities; she requires 24-hour care.

Rian is Réiltín’s nine-year-old brother, who is spearheading a fundraiser to take place in the coming weeks.

Edel was also involved in preparing food hampers for people spending Christmas alone in Trim, and delivered them to those she had met through the year and through lockdowns, and who had been struggling in one way or another, “to let them know that she hadn’t forgotten about them”.

Into the future, Edel will soon embark on married life, having put plans on ice in 2020, when her June wedding from that year fell victim to lockdown one.

On a professional level, this considerate lady will undoubtedly continue to brighten the days of the lucky people she encounters through her many acts of kindness that go noticed and unnoticed around the town of Trim and its hinterland.