Athlone councillor 'waited over an hour' for Gardai after Church Street incident

A local councillor said he waited for an hour and 20 minutes for Gardai to arrive at the scene of an incident of public disorder and criminal damage in the centre of Athlone earlier this week.

Cllr Frankie Keena said that, following the successful staging of the Athlone Christmas Market in the Civic Square, he and others were dismantling the timber market cabins early on Monday morning when the incident unfolded.

"It was a miserable, cold, wet morning and we were anxious to get everything cleared before the morning rush started.

"I heard loud shouting and roaring, which echoed throughout the Civic Square and Church Street, and after checking it out I noticed two individuals who were either drunk or out of their minds on illegal drugs," the Fianna Fáil councillor said.

"Shortly afterwards (the two people) started fighting with one another. I'd had enough at this stage, so I rang the guards at 6.58am looking for assistance to remove them from the street."

He said he was initially put through to a call centre elsewhere in the country, and was asked for an Eircode of where the incident was occurring, before eventually being put through to Athlone Garda Station.

Cllr Keena rang the station again at 7.07am and was told the Gardai would be coming over.

In the meantime, one of the men involved in the fracas "pulled a water pipe, plus connections, off a business premises' external wall which resulted in mains water flowing out on to the street.

"He used this as a weapon to hit the other individual, who took up a brick as his weapon."

The local councillor had his car parked in the Civic Square, in order to load materials into it, and in the course of the fighting the individual with the water pipe hit the car with it a number of times. The fighting then continued out onto Church Street for another 20 minutes.

"At 8.16am, I again rang the Garda Station and requested a reason as to why no Garda car called to the scene. I was informed that an individual bleeding from the head had presented to the station earlier, and that he was brought to the hospital by ambulance.

"I again requested the Gardai to call over to view the damage done to property. Eventually, at around 8.20am, the Gardai arrived. After further discussions, I informed the Gardai that the individual who had been brought to hospital was the person who was using the water pipe as a weapon.

"I am annoyed and furious that it took 80 minutes for the Gardai to come approximately 700 meters across town to Church Street.

"If they had come earlier they would have prevented the damage to the business premises and would have saved the taxpayer money by not having to get an ambulance to bring one of these perpetrators to hospital."

Cllr Keena said he was not criticising the individual Garda members, but added that the matter again highlighted how the recent "removal of the Superintendent from Athlone who would deal with daily policing matters" was a "retrograde" step.

He described the removal of a dedicated Superintendent for Athlone as "unfair on the people of the town and district."

He said it was "something I will continue to highlight and look to be rectified".