Black plastic bag covers Hollymount Garda Station sign

SIGN OF THE TIMES ?Black plastic now covers the sign at the closed Hollymount Garda Station.

Black plastic bag now covers Hollymount Garda Station sign

Michael Commins

HOLLYMOUNT Garda Station is no more. The premises that started out life as Reilly’s Hotel back in the early 1800s was first commissioned as a station for the Garda Siochana in the mid-1920s.
There has been a garda presence in the south Mayo village down through the decades since then, up until recent weeks, and now a black plastic bag adorns the Garda Station sign.
Many will be surprised to learn that the venue was a flourishing hotel around 200 years ago. The main road-path from Westport to Dublin came though Hollymount and on to Tuam and Ballinasloe. Even the great Bianconi recognised this fact when the stage-coach used the road via Hollymount. Two protruding stones half way up the building once proclaimed Reilly’s Hotel and a date is still visible on one of these.
Roundfort resident, Noel Hughes, says the closure of the station is another setback in the downgrading of life in rural Ireland. “A garda presence is always a deterrent and a garda car outside the station has always been a reassurance, especially to the elderly members of the community. Local guards often spent more time outside of their normal hours meeting and talking to the local people and had a good knowledge of what was happening in the locality.
“The people of the Hollymount Garda catchment area voted for our councillors and TDs to represent us but on this occasion they have failed us. None of the government side came out on the local radio to condemn the closure of the local garda station.
“In a recent survey, 75 per cent said the gardai are insufficiently funded. I think the idea for the mobile garda stations announced by the minister is a bit of a joke. I can’t see them being used or making the slightest difference anywhere they go.
“As a former victim of crime when our shop was broken into in Roundfort when we operated there some years back, I know what it is like to be able to speak to the local guard who at the end of the day is the one that will take most interest in local cases. People had a garda service in Hollymount in the worst of economic times in the years gone by. It is sad to see that service come to and end,” says Noel.