Popular Garda Joe calls it a day after 24 years
Joe Kelly and family at his retirement party in the Bracken Court Hotel, Balbriggan.
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BALBRIGGAN'S GARDA Superintendent is heading off into the sunset after serving the community of North Fingal for 24 years and as superintendent at Balbriggan Garda Station for the last six years.
Superintendent Joe Kelly is hanging up his uniform later this month and his years of service to the community were marked with a party thrown by friends and colleagues at the Bracken Court Hotel. Superintendent Kelly has presided over the Balbriggan district at a time when the population exploded bringing huge challenges for policing in the area. He oversaw an expansion of the local force to cope with the changing reality in the town and is responsible for setting up new units in Balbriggan like the drugs unit and community policing unit.
Both of those innovations have been ' hugely successful' according to the retiring superintendent who reflected on his time on the force with the Fingal Independent. 'Both units have been exceptionally important to the town. The drugs unit has had huge successes including just last week with a massive drugs seizure in Ballyboughal,' he said. Typically modest, Superintendent Kelly refuses to answer what his greatest achievement in the post has been and says he will ' leave it to others' to decide that.
Those 'others' might say that steering the the fastest growing town in Ireland through a transformation that could have overwhelmed policing in other areas, will be his legacy. February 28th is the day of his departure and he said what he will miss about the job is 'my colleagues and the friendships I've made and the laughs and banter we had'. As he leaves, the local policing service is under pressure from cut-backs and the station in Rush faces imminent closure.
He told the Fingal Independent that he would leave the rights or wrongs of that decision to ' the politicians' but he said the gardaí working out of Rush station had done 'fantastic work over the years'. The superintendent's replacement has yet to be announced but whoever takes his place will have considerable boots to fill and will take on a massive challenge of policing a still growing district. Superintendent Kelly parted saying simply: 'I just want to say thank you to all the people of the north county for all their help and support over the years - it was a pleasure to serve them.'
- JOHN MANNING
