Fearful rural residents are being ‘pushed to take the law into their own hands’ amid a spate of burglaries.

Such was the level of anxiety that homeowners were warning they would ‘shoot’ thieves if their homes were targeted, a meeting of the County Joint Policing Committee (JPC) heard on Monday.

Headford-based Councillor Andrew Reddington (FG) said that people in rural Galway have become so concerned about potential raids that they are considering extreme measures, adding that burglars “are going to get shot one of these days”.

This came as Cllr Pete Roche (FG) told the meeting that he had witnessed his neighbours’ house being burgled last Thursday and despite repeated efforts to seek garda assistance, no patrol car was sent to the property.

The Abbeyknockmoy councillor said the thieves escaped the scene and were pursued by local residents – with no assistance from An Garda Síochána.

The burglars lost this tail eventually, he said, but Cllr Roche believed they continued to Headford where another burglary took place on the same date.

“I rang Tuam Garda Station and failed to get through – I rang six times and got through eventually,” said Cllr Roche, but the first gardaí to arrive on the scene were detectives sometime later to investigate the theft.

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