Bid to stop Traveller camps at shrine
Woman held over Garda chase
GARDAI are mounting round-the-clock checkpoints to stop Travellers setting up illegal camps ahead of the Pope’s visit.
Traffic officers are on duty 24/7 on all approach roads as Knock, Co Mayo, gears up for the pontiff on August 26.
Sources said the roadblocks are to prevent any attempt to set up caravan camps in any of the shrine carparks.
Thousands of Travellers attend as pilgrims at Knock every year, particularly around August 15 – the Feast Of The Assumption.
And this year interest in the community is “at fever pitch”.
Gardai fear some Travellers might try to “gatecrash” the historic event by turning up early and “bedding down” in one of the shrine carparks, where overnight parking has been banned for decades.
Officers are working in close co-operation with Knock authorities to stop this from happening.
Checkpoints on all approach roads to Knock are expected to continue until after the Pope has departed the shrine.
The round-the-clock surveillance is said to be costly from an overtime point of view and a drain on Garda resources in other parts of the region. Over the decades there has been
Pope Francis will visit next month A WOMAN in her 40s was arrested following a late-night Garda chase.
The incident unfolded at around 12.30am yesterday in South Dublin.
Officres began to pursue a vehicle at Junction 14 of the M50 after a female driver failed to stop at a checkpoint. A large gardai presence
Knock shrine in Co Mayo friction between Travellers and Knock locals.
At one stage the conflict ended up in the Circuit Court with Mayo County Council being awarded costs against a group from Rathkeale in Co Limerick.
The last papal visit to Knock was in 1979 when Pope John Paul II visited the town as well Dublin,
Galway and
Drogheda. was reported throughout the Deansgrange and Cabinteely areas, with up to 15 vehicles including the Emergency Response Unit.
The vehicle eventually came to a halt in Cornelscourt, and the woman was arrested and taken to Dun Laoghaire Garda station.