Councillor says he witnessed "horrific" Traveller feuding

A local councillor described being caught up in Traveller feuding last year as "horrific" and "frightening" at last week's meeting of a special committee designed to facilitate a joint response across the community to policing issues. Fianna Fáil's Frankie Keena told the Athlone/Kilbeggan Joint Policing Committee meeting that Traveller feuding was a big issue and he has experience of being caught up in the middle of an incident in Clonbonny last year, something he said was terrifying. He asked Supt Aidan Glacken if enough resources were in place to counteract local feuding and whether gardai and the local authorities linked closely on the matter. Cllr Keena continued that if anyone at the meeting was caught up in an incident like that, where large numbers of people were clattering each other with handles of spades, they would find it absolutely frightening. Linda Jo Quinn, representing the Athlone Community Forum, said as part of her work she managed the Athlone Traveller Project, which had undertaken some good work including the setting up of a residents' group on-site. However, she pointed out that an inter-agency group to look at Traveller issues hadn't met in a long time despite that the fact it was supposed to meet regularly. She described the Traveller feuding as unfortunate. Supt Aidan Glacken explained that gardai had a Traveller liaison officer in place and they had tried to facilitate mediation as a way of engaging with the issue, however he stressed it this issue was not unique to Athlone. He added that a number of cases relating to feuding were currently before the courts. Speaking on the drugs problem in the town, the garda chief was keen to highlight the fact alcohol was in fact the biggest contributor to anti-social behaviour although drugs remained an ongoing problem, he said. Acknowledging that the drugs issue was a serious matter, Supt Glacken explained that he didn't think we would ever see a zero drugs situation. That had not happened anywhere in the world, he told the JPC meeting, but gardai were doing everything they could to cut the local supply.