IT’S KILL OR BE KILLED
Karl Bond’s life was threatened, his wife assaulted, the mother of his grandchildren attacked and his two dogs poisoned. He watches TV with two knives beside him. In the war against rural crime, he says…
WHEN Karl Bond moved to Banagher, Co. Offaly, in the mid-1970s, nobody locked their doors. Today he carries a pick axe handle in the boot of his car and leaves a hurley by his front door for protection.
In recent times, Mr Bond – who runs the Banagher United football club and is retired from the ESB – has been subjected to a reign of terror in his community. His life has been threatened, his wife has been assaulted, the mother of his grandchildren attacked and his two dogs poisoned. ‘It all began in the early hours of Halloween morning. I awoke to discover five or six people on my property. I ran at them but was threatened. My wife and her sister told them they would call the gardaí but another youth ran at me and told me he would kill me.’
The threat, he said, comes not just from burglary gangs using the motorway to make good their escape but also from people who moved into areas from bigger towns and cites in recent times. He believes these people are causing havoc in rural communities and are also helping motorway gangs by feeding them local information.
Relatives of the notorious Dundon family are living in a townland in the middle of the county, while associates of other Limerick and Dublin criminal gangs have also moved into the area. Mr Bond feels they have turned what was once a peaceful community into one that is sleeping with one eye open.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week, Mr Bond told how he called a meeting to discuss the effects of burglaries and anti-social behaviour in his town. ‘Over 300 people turned up, all with stories to tell. I was astounded.’
The meeting was held the same night as one in nearby Coolderry, attended by 200 people, to discuss the impact of crime following the horrific burglary and beating of farmer Richie McKelvey. The week before the McKelvey incident, some 300 people also gathered in Cloghan, following a spike in burglaries.
‘The volume of people says it all. I couldn’t get over the stories I was hearing. My family is certainly not alone in this. The stories that came out that night were shocking.’
Mr Bond explained his own situation, which has escalated over the last three weeks.
‘The first incident happened in the early hours of Halloween morning. I awoke to find five or six people on my property. I let out a roar and told them to get out. There were 15 or 20 more people outside my gate. Most were from outside the town; others were from the area.
‘Somebody came running at me and I stood my ground, protecting my home. Somebody grabbed him before he got to me. He started shouting that he was going to kill me.’
The night after Halloween, Mr Bond’s wife and his son’s girlfriend were attacked as they made their way home.
‘They were shoved. My wife has a mark on her arm where she fell into the wall; my son’s girlfriend was grabbed by the hair.’
On the Thursday after Halloween, a gang of five or six youths gathered in the town. They were armed with knives and swinging chains.
Mr Bond said the situation had rapidly escalated and he was concerned that the gang was after his family.
‘We rang the gardaí. People were arrested for public disorder that night but they had disposed of their weapons.
‘We had five matches in the field on the Saturday morning after Halloween and when I came home we decided to go down for a meal with my youngest son, who was home from university in Galway.
‘I don’t know what came into my head but I turned back and saw the two dogs dead in the yard, poisoned. In hindsight, I remember the dogs’ food hadn’t been eaten and they had been drinking a lot of water.
‘One of the dogs survived because he had a kidney infection and was indoors are the time. He was lucky but he is obviously missing the other two.’
Mr Bond told the MoS he now travels around his local community with a pick-axe handle in the boot of my car.
‘The gardaí need more resources. Technically, there are four gardaí in Banagher but they spend most of their time in Birr.
‘We had an incident where an old man banged on the wall of his house to tell his neighbours – a family not from the area – to quieten down. Two men burst in on him and he drew a hot poker stick on them.
‘You can see what is going on in the midlands. At the moment if we are not going to be protected it is either kill or be killed.
‘I asked one of the gardaí what was on the table beside my armchair and she said, “two knives”. That’s how I am sitting watching my television. I then pointed at the door to where the hurl is left.
‘Not long ago in Banagher, people didn’t lock up. You just arrived and walked in the back door. That’s how this town was.’
Ger Ryan, from nearby Cloghan, also called a local meeting because of the fear in his community. ‘I am 50 now. When I was 15 there was a
‘Five or six youths armed with knives and chains’
sergeant and five gardaí in the Ferbane Garda Station. There was a sergeant and garda in Ballinahown. There was a sergeant and five gardaí in Banagher. There was a sergeant and two gardaí in Cloghan, and Shannonbridge had a sergeant and a garda. Now Shannonbridge is closed. Ballinahown is closed and there is a sergeant and one garda operating in Ferbane. Banagher has a sergeant and two gardaí. We came through a recession in the 1980s and I cannot understand why gardaí are being scapegoated.’
Mr Ryan described how his brother’s home was raided and that he saw the burglars leave.
‘My brother left his house one morning at 10.53. I drove by his house 27 minutes later and there were three lads walking out of his house. When I realised it wasn’t my brother’s grandson, I turned around and they boys were gone. They had ransacked the house.
‘They were never caught but the gardaí have an idea who they are. They supposedly live in Clondalkin. ‘They were driving a grey Mazda with a false number plate.
‘The same car appeared up around Ferbane days later with a different number plate.
‘It happens when people are gone to Mass or a funeral. There has to be a local information centre for these guys.’
‘Charlie Flanagan will tell you there are 800 new gardaí but what he doesn’t appear to know is that every garda over 50 can go tomorrow. And they are so fed up with the rules and regulations that they are going. They are nearly being pushed out. Gardaí are majorly p***ed off. Morale is low.
‘We were to meet with [Justice Minister] Charlie Flanagan this week but he postponed the meeting. We are still looking to meet him.’
‘Over 300 people turned up with stories to tell’