Muintir na Tire Community Alert makes such a valuable contribution to the safety and security of our neighbours throughout the country. It all started in Carrigtwohil and we in Muintir na Tire are going back to Carrigtwohil to commemorate it.
A Foul Murder in a quiet rural community.
On the 19th
November 1984, two major bridges the Michael Collins and the Eamon De Valera
were officially opened across the river Lee in Cork.
Those bridges were
used that very first night, to gain access the rural countryside by a vicious gang
The gang drove from
the city in a carefully selected stolen car to the townland of Ballycureen,
Glounthaune, in the parish of Carrigtwohill Co Cork.
The three men in the
gang were all masked, when they forced a side window of the bungalow where John
Willis (77) and James Willis (75) lived since retirement almost ten years
previously from their farming career.
One of the elderly
men attempted to escape through the front door but was beaten back up the
hallway before being tied up and both were dumped in the bathroom, while the
gang ransacked the bungalow where they expected to find an appreciable amount
of cash.
Gardaí did not rule
out a theory that a gang member and associated friends may have called to the
home previously, under the guise of traveling salesmen.
Failing to find what
was not there, the gang resorted to the type of brutality that was a common
feature of robberies of the period. Repeatedly, each
brother in turn was beaten savagely until James died.
James Willis (75)
died during the night of Monday 19th/ Tuesday 20th
November 1984
The gang then made
their escape stealing the brothers red Fiat car, which was abandoned in Ballyvolane
an area they believed would throw the Garda investigation off their scent.
They then carefully
returned their original car to the exact spot from where it was stolen, before
laying low. Meanwhile in
Glounthaune John Willis had freed himself and painfully crossed the field to
the home of a nephew. The local Dr Fergus
O’Connell and Gardaí were immediately contacted who requested State
Pathologist Dr John Harbison to conduct
an investigation and post-mortem. Later on
that day the Garda Technical Bureau removed the brothers Fiat car to Mayfield
Garda station where a murder incident centre was opened.
Word of the atrocity
spread rapidly across the parish of Carrigtwohill. A sense of outrage
and anger burned within the people that such an appalling fate was dealt out to
two highly respected members of the community. In the nearby parish
of Dungourney a well-loved native Mick Walsh had also been murdered earlier in
the year by a gang from Tallaght Co Dublin, who had traveled down to Co Cork to carry out a number of raids, and fled to England
when the heat came on later.
Fear also coursed
through the veins of the vulnerable and elderly, it could happen again.
and it did. In Co Roscommon a
week later in what was almost a copycat attack, two elderly unmarried sisters
were savagely beaten with an iron bar, one of them died.
The following night
in Co Sligo, a relatively young 65 year old woman was attacked in her home by a
gang.
Anger and outrage inspires Muintir Na Tire to set up Community Alert
The upside of the
growing anger was used positively, because anger can inspire us to change, to
improve conditions; anger can inspire us to be better. The positivism was
inspired and directed by the leaders of the community organisation Muintir Na
Tire at the time.
At a meeting of
Imokilly Region Muintir na Tire, held in Dungourney on Fri 22nd November
1984 attended by eleven Community Councils, it was decided to initiate a series
of open public meetings throughout East Cork, to discuss the tragedy and the
concern about safety of the elderly especially in isolated areas.
After this meeting it
was Muintir na Tire Imokilly Region Development Officer Mr Kevin Hickey who
coined the term Community Alert.
The term was first
used on the posters advertising the various meetings, and was accepted as the
actual organisation name later.
A meeting was held in
Carrigtwohill December 6th. 1984 where an enormous crowd,
estimated at over 300 packed into the Community Hall. They listened to
speakers, such as Muintir na Tire National Secretary Sean Hegarty, Chief Superintendent
Tom O’Reilly who had come down from the Gárda Community Relations section based
in Dublin. Local T.D Michael
Ahern spoke, he was a member of Carrigtwohill Community Council at the time and
he gave valuable support to develop Community Alert from day one. This meeting in
Carrigtwohill was also significant due to the decision by RTE to record in
Carrigtwohill the following morning a Nationwide program dealing with the
robbery murder aftermath.
Much of the Community
Alert ethos and ideas, which were coalescing over those two weeks hardened
into a, to do list that night. It was a unique
moment in time, and in the lives of those present that night - Community Alert
was born.
For those idealists
who volunteered to develop the concept of Community Alert it was the beginning
of many years of effort.
If you wish to attend our commemoration in Carrigtwohil on Octobe 9th please contact us
Diarmuid Cronin.
Community Alert Development Office.
086 – 6000 752 email; communityalert2@eircom.net
or you can contact us at 021 4500688 and book your place