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The Irish Prison Service are inviting applications from suitably qualified persons, who wish to be considered for inclusion on a panel from which vacancies for Recruit Prison Officer may be filled.
The Irish Prison Service is responsible for the provision of safe, secure and humane custody for those people committed to prison by the Courts.
The Public Appointments Service, on behalf of the Irish Prison Service, intends to recruit up to 250 Prison Officers in 2023, with an additional 300 in 2024.
The last recruitment competition was held in 2022 and was very successful with over 2,000 persons making applications.
Note: The 2023 ‘Recruit Prison Officer Competition’ closes at 3:00pm, on Thursday 28th September 2023.
Information can be found on the Public Service Appointments website HERE.
The press release today issued by Fine Gael Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee: it’s all just about future voter optics.
Would this €10 million not have been better spent invested in health issues like Limerick University Hospital, which has been historically under funded by successive Fianna Fáil & Fianna Gael led governments?
Why didn’t Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee just give €1 million to those who are walking the streets of Dublin, currently causing a state of disorder, due to the total absence of authority and parental control?
Same funding could have been granted on condition that these rude, crude, uneducated, and uncivilized, barbarous persons stay off the streets of Dublin!
- Increased deployment of public order unit and other specialist units in Dublin City Centre.
- Overtime will provide up to 48,500 extra Garda hours per month across all Dublin Garda Divisions
- Days of Action to be held across Dublin, by Gardaí.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has welcomed details announced by Ms Angela Willis, Assistant Garda Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Region, of how the additional €10 million allocation to An Garda Síochána will be used to bolster high visibility policing in Dublin city.
Minister McEntee last month announced the additional funding for Garda overtime, to increase high visibility policing in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.
The Minister is committed to ensuring Dubliners working and living in our capital, and those who visit the city, are safe and feel safe. An enhanced visible policing presence is central to achieving this objective and Minister McEntee is in regular contact with An Garda Síochána in this regard.
She welcomed the detail provided today by Assistant Commissioner Willis on how the additional €10 million is being spent, and will be spent, to provide consistent high visibility policing in the capital.
This includes:
Increased deployment of the Garda National Public Order Unit in the city centre, with €2m of the €10million dedicated to increased public order capacity
An enhanced visible Garda presence at strategic locations in Dublin city centre
Uniformed Gardaí supported in the city centre by the Garda Air Support Unit, the Garda Mounted Unit, the Garda Dog Unit, Regional Armed Response Units, and Road Policing Units to enhance visibility in the city centre
Planned days of high impact operations in the city centre and across all DMR divisions
High visibility patrols on the transport network and near transport services
An enhanced Operation Citizen, including a focus on tackling street level drug dealing, anti-social behaviour and the seizure of alcohol in the city centre
Minister McEntee said: “As Minister for Justice I am committed to ensuring that Gardaí have the resources they need to build stronger, safer communities. This additional funding will help with the Garda commitment to continue to protect Dublin communities and ensure that the city is a safe place for all to live, work and visit. I am pleased that the plans now in place by the Garda Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner Willis and Garda management will deliver high visibility policing in the capital to support safety in Dublin.
While policing alone cannot solve many of the factors which contribute to criminality or people feeling unsafe, high visibility policing is crucial to providing reassurance for all who live in, work in or visit our capital city.
I also look forward in the coming weeks to launching the Community Safety Plan for Dublin’s north inner city. This plan, drawn up by the Community Safety Partnership which I established, recognises that increasing safety is not just the responsibility of An Garda Síochána alone.
It also requires significant input from the local community and other State services, such as local authorities, health, education and others.
But nobody knows better than local communities how to increase safety in their areas – and that is why the community is centrally involved in drawing up these plans.”
The North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSPs) is one of three pilots established by Minister McEntee, ahead of the rollout of the partnerships locally next year. The Dublin LCSP is due to publish its Community Safety Plan in the coming weeks.
Minister McEntee added: “In the coming weeks, I will also announce the latest round of funding grants under the Community Safety Innovation fund, which I established to reinvest the ill-gotten proceeds of crime as seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau into local projects to improve community safety.”
Budget 2023 also reflects the commitment of Government to ensuring that our communities are safe and that An Garda Síochána has the resources required to operate effectively. The budget provided by Government to the Garda Commissioner continues to increase to unprecedented levels, with an allocation of more than €2 billion for 2023.
Minister McEntee said that Garda recruitment is now accelerating after a Covid enforced pause, with new classes both entering and graduating from the Garda College in Templemore every three months.
The Minister said: “We are seeing numbers consistently increase in Templemore. 135 trainees entered the training college in February and another 154 in May. Another class of 174, the largest class since Covid, entered the college at the end of July, continuing the building momentum in recruitment.
100 new Gardaí have attested so far this year; another 470 will be in active training – and two more classes are due into Templemore in October and December. And I also look forward to attending the graduation of the next class in October, as well as working with colleagues in Government to ensure this strong pipeline of recruits is maintained.
Along with Minister of State James Browne (Fianna Fáil), I am also committed to further expanding the number of Youth Diversion Programmes, which do hugely valuable work, across the country.”
Through the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 the Department of Justice is broadening and deepening the services provided by the network of Youth Diversion Projects across the State.
This puts a focus on Early Intervention and Family Support programmes for children at risk, as well as access to appropriate Education, Training and Youth Services.
The Department of Justice is currently funding eight Youth Diversion Projects covering the Dublin City Centre area (specifically Dublin 1, 7 and 8) and is committed to expanding the number of YDPs across the country.
Funding for Youth Diversion Projects is provided by the Department of Justice and co-financed by the European Social Fund’s ESF+ Programme.
“The Padre” is a new publication which further details the actions of Tipperary priest Fr. Patrick Ryan, latter responsible for arming the Irish Republican Army (IRA), using funding supplied by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, once known as the “Mad Dog of the Middle East”. Colonel Gaddafi was a Libyan dictator, who was himself deposed and killed in 2012.
In a book published by Merrion Press; authored by award winning journalist Ms Jennifer O’Leary, the Tipperary priest reveals how his tip-off to the IRA led to the mistaken identity and murder of a senior Brussels bank official.
Tipperary-born priest Fr. Patrick Ryan now aged in his nineties, has admitted his link to the murder of the then 47 year old banker Mr Michael André Michaux. Mr Michaux latter a senior official at the Central Bank in Brussels, lived in the same street as the targeted diplomat, named as Mr Paul Holmer, the deputy British Ambassador to NATO.
Fr. Ryan has confirmed that the real IRA target, back in March 1979, was Mr Paul Holmer latter a Brussels-based senior British diplomat at NATO. In early 1979 senior British officials in Brussels were put on high alert following a warning that the IRA were plotting to kill a senior UK representative in the city. Among those warned was former British Home Secretary Mr Roy Jenkins, who was then President of the European Commission.
Ms O’Leary first spoke to Fr. Ryan in 2019 for the landmark BBC NI series ‘Spotlight’ on the ‘Troubles — A Secret History’ in which he admitted securing explosives for the IRA from Libya and confessed to his role in the Hyde Park and Brighton bombings.
In her book Ms O’Leary delves into more detail with Fr. Ryan regarding his activities and his role in assisting an IRA unit in Europe.
On March 22nd, 1979, Sir Richard Sykes, aged 58, the British Ambassador to Holland, and married father of 3, was shot dead by the IRA. Sir Richard was seated in his Rolls Royce outside his residence in the Hague. His 19-year-old footman, Mr Karel Straub, was also murdered in the attack.
Just hours later two IRA gunmen ambushed Brussels banker Mr Michaux in his car, mistaking him for the NATO diplomat Holmer.
At this time Fr. Ryan often stayed at the home of well-connected art historian Ms Lucie Ninane in Brussels and was there on the day of Sir Richard Sykes assassination. Fr. Ryan met regularly at the Ninane residence with a companion named Maurice, who passed on information to the IRA, and here Fr. Ryan also obtained information from the art historian’s well-placed associates.
Fr. Ryan heard of Mr Michaux’s true identity the following day while listening to a radio news report and fearing his own arrest, he fled Brussels in the back of an ambulance, before taking refuge at a monastery. The monks were expecting him, however he never disclosed the business he was involved in or why he required somewhere to hold-up.
During a lunch hosted by a friend of Lucie Ninane at her home in a wealthy suburb, Fr. Ryan’s host mentioned that a British diplomat lived nearby at the end of the cul-de-sac.
Fr. Ryan claims he made sketches of the area noting car registrations coming and going from different houses, before passing same to his intermediary Maurice, who in turn passed this information to the IRA so that the hit team on the continent got the details.
At 6.15pm on March 22nd, 1979 two IRA gunmen approached a car close to Mr Holmer’s residence and fired eight bullets in three bursts from just a few yards. The sole occupant was hit in the head and arms and later died in hospital.
The demolition of Britain’s wonkiest Midland pub, known as ‘The Crooked House’, situated at Coppice Mill, Himley, Staffordshire, U.K.; following a suspected arson attack, which ripped through the building on August 5th last, has been greeted by angry outrage. The building was also known as “Siden House”, (siden” meaning “crooked” in Black Country dialect.)
The historic dwelling was erected in 1765 as an 18th-century farmhouse, before it was converted into a pub in the 1830s. It was sold in July 2023, and on August 5th was gutted by fire, before two days later it was totally demolished. Police are treating the fire as arson, and investigations are ongoing to establish the circumstances of the fire itself and also the lawfulness of the demolition.
The director of a company that hired a digger to demolish The Crooked House has now been identified as convicted Tipperary drug smuggler, Mr Morgan McGrath.
Mr McGrath, aged 51, formerly from Breansha, Co. Tipperary, was jailed for 12 years in 2004, for his part in a £20 million international drug smuggling operation, and on being released from prison, moved to reside in the UK.
Mr McGrath together with Mr Michael Howard of Knocktoran, Elton, Co Limerick, had previously both pleaded guilty to charges relating to their attempt to import, into Ireland, 591,180 Ecstasy tablets, 198kg of Cannabis resin, 48kg of Heroin, 602,000 Temazepam tablets and 132kg of Amphetamine (speed); latter hidden underneath the false lead-lined floor of trailers carrying vegetables. Both men had pleaded guilty before Monaghan Circuit Court to charges of conspiring to import the drugs, which then had an estimated street value of some €22.5m, between the dates August 1st and August 31st, 2002.
In July 2005, both men were both jailed for 12 years, for their involvement in one of the biggest drug hauls to be intercepted by police in Europe, and who later had their sentences reduced to 8 years by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Just like the destruction of the Great Famine ‘Double Ditch’ here in Thurles, Co. Tipperary; the destruction of this red brick built, landmark pub, which owed its name due to its lopsidedness, (latter caused by a subsidence linked to certain mining activities), has now brought 258 years of history to an abrupt end.
However, unlike the historic Thurles ‘Double Ditch’, in the case of ‘The Crooked House’, latter has been greeted nationally by an angry public meeting, supported by local politicians demonstrating utter outrage at its demolition.
The fire occurred just 9 days after being purchased by ATE Farms, a company controlled by Mrs Carly Taylor, whose husband, Mr Adam Taylor is a former director of the company that runs the landfill site adjacent to the historic pub which also mysteriously caught fire .
Mr McGrath is the director of AT Contracting & Plant Hire, which hired a digger to destroy the remains of the pub, without permission, just two days after it was destroyed in the mystery blaze. The owner of the digger has confirmed that he rented the same vehicle to the firm, prior to the fire destroying the historic building.
Mr McGrath and Mr Adam Taylor are the only two active directors of AT Contracting & Plant Hire, which provides the diggers, excavators and other heavy machinery used in the quarries and landfill sites linked to the Taylors across the country.
Fire crews from Staffordshire and West Midlands which raced to the fire scene, found making access extremely difficult, due to the 8-foot (2.4m) mounds of dirt, blocking the only access lane way to the burning building.
It should be noted that Mr McGrath has denied any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the historic landmark pub, and neither the Taylors nor Mr McGrath are suspected of acting illegally.
Here in Thurles, certain ‘uncouth barbarians’, making up about 1% of our local community, have begun tearing up strips of the pour-in-place rubber safety surface, located in our town’s much appreciated town park play area.
When introducing the surface for this Thurles play area, within the Thurles park, the most important consideration by Council officials was always safety. Thus pour-in-place rubber (also known as PIP rubber surfacing) was wisely introduced.
Poured rubber surfacing is durable, soft and specifically designed to be extremely shock-absorbent. This surface, depending on climate, remains soft with a life span of at least 15 years before requiring resurfacing.
Just 4.5 inches of this poured rubber exterior provides a surface on which any child can safely land, from a 10-foot fall, reasonably safely.
Parents and district council administrators do not have to worry about chemical sensitivities, since this rubber is manufactured using only high quality rubber, same manufactured from natural materials, thus the rubber coating is designed to resist cracks, which could be caused by severe temperatures and all types of weathering.
The torn strips of rubber, shown in the images above, are therefore the work of vandals, intent on destroying the happiness of hundreds of parents and children who actively enjoy this most magnificent facility.
Where is our €100,000 Thurles CCTV facility?
While we are unable to totally clarify, we understand that the Thurles CCTV system has not properly functioned since early 2017, and while just some of the cameras continue to work today, the actual recording equipment itself, has fully ceased in its capacity to function.
Perhaps someone could further clarify the situation.
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