Askamore Text Alert is now due. Please give your name, number and €5 to any member of Askamore Community Council.
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Askamore Community Text Alert
€5 fee for continuing to receive text alerts is now due.
Please put €5 per phone in envelope with name / number & give to any member of Askamore Community Council by Monday March 16th. List of Council names as below:
Ballynancoran, Donishall, Ballytarsna, Askabeg, Bolinrush:
Aileen Kavanagh, Jim Martin, Willie Murphy, Brian Buttle
Askamore, Kiltilihane, Munny:
Paddy Byrne, Seán Byrne, James Tomkins, Stacy Gilbert
Ballyconran, Brideswell – Little & Big, Castlewhite, Knocknamota:
Joe Kenny, Davy Donohoe, Mick Dee, PJ Nolan
Burrow, Drummond, Motabower, Knockshaunfin, Park, Ballyellis:
Owen Doyle, Larry Butler, Enda Morris
Paula Mulroe
Console / Community Alert Fundraising Card Game
There will be a card game in Askamore Schoolhouse bar tonight in joint aid of Console, the national suicide prevention charity, and the local Community Alert group. Tickets on sale from all Community Council members. Please support these very worthy local and national causes.
Card Drives in Schoolhouse Bar up to Christmas 2014 – please support your area
| November 3rd | Console / Askamore Community Alert |
| November 10th | Kiltilahane Ballytarsna |
| November 17th | Askamore Munny |
| November 24th | Ballyconran Brideswell |
| December 1st | Ballyellis Burrow |
| December 8th | Castlewhite Drummond |
| December15th | Donishall Bolinrush |
Console / Community Alert Fundraising Card Game
There will be a card game in Askamore Schoolhouse bar on Monday, November 3rd in joint aid of Console, the national suicide prevention charity, and the local Community Alert group. Tickets will be on sale in coming weeks. Your support would be much appreciated.
Major Campaign to stop Gorey Gárda Station being downgraded
A major campaign is underway to stop Gorey Garda Station from being downgraded.
A number of meetings have been held, a committee has been set up and there will be a public meeting for everyone in Gorey district, which takes in our area of Askamore / Kilrush. This is a single focus group – their only purpose is to stop the station being downgraded and already the committee has compiled some very interesting and disturbing statistics, which are attached to this post.
The public meeting takes place in the Ashdown Park Hotel next Monday night, February 25th @ 8 pm and it is hoped that there will be a large representation from all the Gorey Garda district area. 
There is more information in the following documents:
Christmas Social tonight
Tonight’s Christmas Social in the Schoolhouse Bar in Askamore is hosted jointly by Askamore Community Education (ACE) who run the Tuesday night talks, and by Askamore Community Alert.
Everyone is welcome to come, and the specially invited guests are the older members of our community, some of whose stories have been taped in the past few months as part of the Askamore Memories folklore recording project.
These stories will form the basis of a presentation tonight. There will also be music, food, and bingo!
Come along and enjoy a social community event in good company – 8pm.
Askamore Text Alert – in The Irish Times today
Big rise in Community Alert schemes
ALISON HEALY
THERE HAS been a 20 per cent increase in the number of Community Alert schemes set up around the State, following a rise in rural crime.
Muintir na Tíre, which runs Community Alert, said it now had more than 1,400 schemes and had noted a “dramatic increase” in calls from people seeking information about setting up schemes and keeping their homes and farms safe.
The scheme involves people reporting suspicious activities, liaising with local gardaí and looking out for their neighbours.
Its national co-ordinator, Liam Kelly, said 40 new groups were set up last year and 34 others were reactivated.
“We’ve about 12 new groups already this year and a huge amount of calls,” he said.
Garda figures show that burglaries rose 8 per cent nationally last year but the increase was as high as 40 per cent in some areas.
Recent aggravated burglaries of older people’s homes in places such as Pallasgreen in Limerick and Williamstown in Galway caused a great sense of insecurity, particularly among older people, Mr Kelly said.
Last month in Pallasgreen a farmhouse was robbed and its inhabitants, two sisters and a brother, were tied up with cable for almost three hours.
Earlier this month, two elderly brothers were tied up and robbed in their secluded farmhouse in Williamstown.
“An incident locally can create huge fear,” Mr Kelly said. “Garda stations are closing and people are very concerned about that. They want to know that there’s someone they can turn to in the absence of local gardaí.”
The increase in the theft of scrap metal has led the Irish Farmers’ Association to call for the introduction of a “track and trace” scheme, which would compel all scrap metal dealers to record the source of scrap metal received.
The farm group said the scheme should also include mandatory checks by local authorities and An Garda Síochána.
Its rural affairs chairman, Harold Kingston, said it was regularly getting reports of valuable machinery disappearing from farmyards and fields as part of work carried out by a sophisticated network of criminals.
Muintir na Tíre is now campaigning to get Garda approval for a national roll-out of a text-alert scheme, after successful pilot schemes in places such as Kerry, Tipperary and Wexford.
One such scheme is running in Askamore, Co Wexford. The community has erected signs that read: “Beware, community texting in operation. You’re welcome if you should be here. We text 300 people and gardaí if you shouldn’t.”
People are asked to call the scheme if they see anything suspicious, and the volunteer manning the phone then decides if it merits a group text being sent.
Mr Kelly said there were dozens of text-alert schemes around the country but all were run in different ways, and a national scheme for such operations would be preferable.
Muintir na Tíre AGM
Nest Thursday, May 31st, sees Muintir na Tíre host its AGM in Murroe, Co. Limerick. Askamore Community Council and Askamore Community Alert are both under the auspices of this national body, and it is hoped that a number of people locally will travel for this AGM.
There is a very good line-up of speakers and topics:
Repossession of Family Homes by Ross Maguire of New Beginning
Suicide on the increase: Dan Neville TD
Rural Homes under seige from increased burglaries: Asst. Garda Commissioner
Funding for Rural Communities: Carmel Fox
John Lonergan will give the keynote address.
If you would like to attend the AGM, there is a bus being organised which will leave locally next Thursday for Limerick at approx. noon. Cost €10, refreshments will be provided at AGM.
If you would like to travel please give your name to Lorraine on 086 418 3357 as soon as possible, but before next Monday evening.
Askamore Community Website 