A savage attack on a farmer in south Tipperary last week has led to angry calls for greater Garda action from local farmers and other residents.

Almost 500 hundred people attended a major public meeting on Thursday 6 October at Moyle Rovers GAA Club where residents expressed their fury over the unprovoked assault which occurred in Kilmore, Clonmel, Co Tipperary on Friday 30 September.

People from Powerstown and Lisronagh, Clonmel alleged they have been the subject of violent criminal behaviour which has increased in severity and frequency over the last month.

ADVERTISEMENT

Andrew Stokes, chair of Powerstown-Lisronagh community alert group spoke about the “vicious, life-threatening and unprovoked attack” on the local man and said: "I'm blown away by the crowd here tonight, I think it just shows how much anxiety and frustration there is in our community.”

During the meeting a number of personal stories were outlined by individuals of the parishes affected.

A recurring theme at the meeting was the extent to which the current laws appear to favour the rights of the trespasser over those of landowners.

Agricultural contractor Robert O’Shea from Littleton, Thurles said: "The criminal has all the rights; everyone here has no rights. If they are on your land, you are the one that is going to suffer, you can’t do a thing to them."

“I am tired of being intimidated by a gang of marauding thugs who have continued to harass and bully every single person in this hall on some occasion over the past 20 years,” former Tipperary footballer Derry Foley said.

Foley questioned what the armed response unit in Cahir are doing “driving around the country from Clonmel to Waterford to Wexford when the real problem is ten miles in the road.”

The use of resources, he said, has to change.

“There’s no point in having gardaí on the quay [in Clonmel] with their hands up wondering about traffic offences when the real criminals are out around at night time,” Foley told the meeting.

“There’s a probability that if you drove down the quay with a machete in your car and a bag of cocaine in the back you wouldn’t be arrested.

“But if you had no tax, no MOT or no NCT by God you would be,” he said.

Chairman of Clonmel Rugby Club JJ Killian said that the sports body has “seriously considered” relocating due to the constant issues they are facing locally.

“We have suffered non-stop, incessant abuse and intimidation for the past 40 years. Only recently a member was physically assaulted in front of a crowd of 400 people at Clonmel Rugby Club. These people are out of control.

“I was so frustrated some years ago that I sat down and started an excel sheet and after four months we had 35 serious incidents from our neighbours next door,” he said.

Katie Long also spoke and said that in the space of a week and a half her house was broken into five times.

Meanwhile another woman from the floor claimed the gardaí were ignoring their reports of suspicious activity.

“We are reporting it but the guards couldn’t be less interested. They are ignoring the ordinary people who are suffering day-in and day-out,” she said.

However, these assertions were rejected by Superintendent William Leahy who suggested that serious incidents were not being lodged with the gardaí.

He claimed there were 27 reported incidents of trespassing for the year to date in Clonmel, which covers five areas.

Just four of those incidents, he said, related to the Powerstown-Lisronagh area and three out of those four were in the last week.

Superintendent Leahy pointed out that people will also have to give their names if the Gardaí are to secure prosecutions for illegal activity.

"If we want to bring a prosecution to court, we need the landowner to make a statement of complaint," he said.

The senior garda also urged the public not to take the law into their own hands if they encounter people trespassing. He said landowners should ring the gardaí immediately.

Petition

People who attended the meeting were asked to sign a petition which a delegation from the community hope to bring before the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.

The issues of the meeting are also set to be discussed at the next meeting of the Joint Policing Committee.

The gardaí would not comment on the details of the Kilmore assault.