Criminals have attempted to burn down a Garda station in Co Kildare, made serious threats against every officer stationed there and even followed one garda home, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has claimed.
Six gardaí stationed at Carbury, Co Kildare have been issued with "Garda Information Messages", which are used to inform both gardaí and members of the public when there is credible intelligence of a threat to their lives, the GRA said.
Garda John Joe O'Connell, who is based at Naas, Co Kildare and who is on the GRA national executive said all members at the station were affected.
“We are dealing with a criminal element. Two weeks ago Carbury Garda station was shot at in the middle of the night and there was an attempted arson attack on it in the very same incident,” he said.
“Thankfully there were no members inside at the time but the culprit or culprits in this instance wouldn’t have known that.”
Another garda was followed home after he finished work, a situation Gda O’Connell described as “devastating” for the officer. He said it was a logical follow-on to assume this also posed a threat to their families.
“An Garda Siochana don’t issue these forms to members of the public or our own members lightly so the threats are real and you know they have been acted on,” Gda O’Connell said.
He told RTE’s News at One programme senior gardaí were aware of the situation and were allocating resources to deal with it.
Garda O’Connell did not give any insight into who was carrying out the threats or why other than to suggest it was the work of criminal group.
A Garda spokesman declined to comment.
