Under the constitution, everyone is entitled to feel safe in our country. But sadly at this moment, women and elderly people across Ireland do not.
The fear of attack, the fear of isolation, the fear of someone breaking into your home is rampant.
There is a nervousness about going for a walk or a run. You are scared of going down a street alone. There is an extreme worry if you live on your own, whether it is in a town or a city or in rural Ireland where the nearest neighbour might be a mile or two away.
The past few months has seen a 22% increase in burglaries on the east coast.
But when you see an elderly man like Tom Niland, 73, beaten up at his Sligo home and left for dead and a brother and sister, Gerry, 79, and Mary O’Halloran, 83 robbed of their life savings at knifepoint in Cork city, you start to wonder what type of country we live in.
You really feel crime is getting out of control in this little Republic.
Respect for others seems to be gone and the evil criminals deliberately target the most vulnerable in our society, often treating them with a cruel viciousness.
For decades in Ireland, you could leave your front or backdoor unlocked or opened any hour of the day and in particular in country areas. But not any more. The intruders can come at any hour, day or night.
They see many of us as easy pickings, but especially those over 60 who are unable to defend themselves.
During the height of the pandemic, these types of crimes came to a standstill largely because there were Garda checkpoints on roads all over.
It was difficult to travel, commit a crime, and make a getaway.
But we can’t live in a police state. The gardai, as hard as they try, can’t be everywhere every minute of every day.
We have to get on with our lives as best we can to try and stay safe.
Community watch schemes in country areas with everyone on a local WhatsApp group are a big help.
Strange cars, vans or trucks can be reported with a warning and everyone can lock up and keep an eye out.
But what we really need is a more visible Garda presence on the streets, more rural police stations re-opened and the number of gardai in these sites significantly beefed up.
To be fair to the Government, an additional 800 Garda recruits are to be hired this year, but we need much more to be done.
There also should be tougher laws and penalties against those who commit these crimes.
Anyone who kills someone in a robbery should not be charged with manslaughter but murder.
The offence of aggravated burglary where violence is used should carry a jail sentence of 20 years. Only when our courts start taking a zero tolerance approach in sentencing and throw the book at these ruthless perpetrators will these lowlifes think twice.
In most American states, if someone breaks into your home you are entitled to defend yourself and shoot them.
If they die, that’s their fault. No charges are preferred against you.
If these attacks don’t stop here, how long will it be before the people of Ireland start looking for guns to feel safe in their homes?
When you see burglars pouring boiling water over their victims as has happened during break-ins, every one of those victims would have wished they had their own gun. I live in rural Ireland and am now thinking of applying for a shotgun licence as I get older.
Would you blame me? If someone broke into my home I wouldn’t think twice about opening fire.
The way I see it, it is either them or us and my family comes first.
