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Red-letter day for local Gardai
14.10.10
by Linda McGrory
MONDAY was a red-letter day for Buncrana Gardai with
the official opening of their €7.5 million district
headquarters at Ardaravan Square.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, Justice Minister
Dermot Ahern and Minister of State with
responsibility for the OPW, Martin Mansergh, joined
a large gathering of serving and retired gardai,
local politicians, clergy, senior members of the
PSNI and other guests for the ribbon-cutting
ceremony.
Against a backdrop of warm autumn sunshine and the
celebratory strains of the Garda Band, the
state-of-the-art building was declared officially
open following a joint blessing by Fr John Walsh and
Canon Sam Barton. Local Garda officer, Elaine Moyles,
sang the popular hymn 'Make a Channel of Your
Peace'.
The new building was principally designed by OPW
architect Brendan Cormican and his team and was
built by the principal contractor, Michael MacNamara
& Co. |
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"This project has come
in on budget and on time, notwithstanding that it
was altered substantially in mid-stream to take in a
larger site area. This is obviously a fine facility
indeed and its appearance here constitutes, first
and foremost, a significant civic building for
Buncrana and a most imposing and substantial
addition to the streetscape," said Mr Mansergh.
The occasion was also used by Mr Murphy, Minister
Ahern and Mr Mansergh to denounce dissident activity
in the border regions and elsewhere.
Condemning the recent car bomb attack in Derry and
claims by dissidents that they had 'executed' a
number of people in the last few years, Mr Mansergh
added:
"Such human rights abuse at the most level of life
and limb constitute an utter betrayal of Republican
values, and those behind such acts should have
enough intelligence and imagination to know that
such exhausted tactics and slogans are politically
irrelevant and that they will not advance the cause
of a united Ireland in a million years."
Mr Ahern said people did not want to be dragged back
to the dark old days and he said co-operation
between gardai and the PSNI was stronger than ever.
The Justice Minister and Garda Commissioner both
acknowledged Inishowen’s tragic history of road
fatalities and vowed that resources would continue
to be deployed to tackle the problem. |
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Also among the invited
guests, who were welcomed to the celebrations by
local Supt Kevin English, were Buncrana Mayor, Cllr
Pádraig MacLochlainn; OPW chairperson, Clare
McGrath; regional Assistant Commissioner, Kieran
Kenny; Donegal Chief Supt, Terry McGinn; PSNI Chief
Supt Stephen Martin and Supt Paul McCormill from
Strand Road station in Derry as well as Chief Supt.
Michael Skuce who is based in Omagh. Among the large
gathering too was retired Buncrana sergeant, John
O'Keeffe, who was highly instrumental in the drive,
over many years, to get a top-quality station for
the locality. He said he was proud and delighted the
town now had one of the top Garda facilities in the
country.
Meanwhile, the ministers joined Senator Cecilia
Keaveney in meeting representatives from Carndonagh
to discuss fears that a long-promised policing
headquarters for North Inishowen had been shelved
while a massive revamp of the local courthouse had
been axed in favour of a much smaller refurbishment.
"It is clear that both ministers understand the
issue but, with the Garda station, it is a matter
for the Commissioner and the Garda Building Unit to
prioritise the Carn project. "As it is, there have
been more than half a dozen sites examined by the
OPW and so the progress could be rapid if the
priority was given by Garda HQ to this location,"
said Senator Keaveney. |
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