A SOMBRE mood hung over the Garda Training College in Templemore yesterday as graduating gardaí stood to attention in memory of their colleague Garda Robbie McCallion who died on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after he was struck by a stolen car in Letterkenny.
The 263 graduates marched into the front square in the morning sunshine for their graduation ceremony but, before they did a drill display, they stood for a minute’s silence in memory of the 29-year-old garda from Mayo.
Robert McCallion graduated from Templemore just two years ago, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy reminded those assembled. He expressed his condolences to Robert McCallion’s parents, Bob and Nancy, and his family, including his brother, also a garda, and two uncles who are retired superintendents.
Mr Murphy told the Garda graduates that An Garda Síochána had been keeping the peace since 1922 and it would continue to do so. “In memory of Robert, keep your duty, do your duty. I will support you as commissioner and senior management will support you. And the community want you out there, regardless of these tragic events.”
He said his best advice to new recruits was to embrace and engage with the local community. “A police service that alienates itself from the community cannot rely on the principle of policing by consent, the cornerstone of the policing philosophy in any democratic society.”
He said he would endeavour to provide the necessary support to gardaí to allow them to go out in the street and fulfil their policing role.
Presenting the graduates’ certificates, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said Garda McCallion’s death was “an awful sad loss for his family and his friends and the Garda Síochána generally, a horrific incident”. Garda McCallion was not the first garda to pay the ultimate price in protecting the community and his death was “a stark reminder” of the dangers gardaí faced, he said.
“But you should bear in mind too that in carrying out your duties you will have huge support from the community you serve.”
Meanwhile, at Letterkenny Garda station where Robbie McCallion served, a steady stream of people filed in to the station to sign a book of condolences.
By mid-afternoon more than 800 people had signed the book in the foyer of the station where the Tricolour fluttered at half-mast overhead.
Similar queues formed to sign books of condolences in the Co Mayo towns of Swinford – where his father Bob served as a garda for more than three decades – and Ballina, where his brother John is a serving officer.
Before the ceremony, Mr Ahern and the Garda Commissioner denied that a ban on recruitment meant that the Garda college would be mothballed after next month’s intake of students. Mr Murphy said the college would be used for training and would soon be training gardaí in the use of pepper spray.
Mr Ahern said there were about 700 students currently in the college and there would be large passing out parades up to the end of 2010. “We won’t have a ban on recruitment forever. Obviously next year we will be looking at it again, in the light of making sure that we keep the numbers up as high as possible.”
He said Garda numbers had increased over recent years.“We’re now at 14,500. By year end it will reach 15,000. That’s a very substantial level, given the fact that it’s increased from about 12,000 in the last four years.”
Garda McCallion’s remains will leave Corrigan’s Funeral Home in Lower Camden Street, Dublin, at 3pm today for his family home in Park Road, Swinford, where they will repose until Sunday.
Removal of the remains from the family home will take place on Sunday evening to the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Swinford. Funeral Mass and burial will take place on Monday.