Cathaoirleach welcomes appointment of new Ballina superintendent

A REPLACEMENT has been appointed to succeed north Mayo’s outgoing garda Superintendent, Mayo Live has learned.  

Former inspector Alan Brady has been promoted to the rank of Superintendent after former Superintendent Gary Walsh was promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent, which will see him head of the gardaí’s Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Supt Brady previously served in An Garda Síochána’s National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.

Det Supt Walsh had served as Superintendent for the north Mayo area since January of 2022, with Supt Gabriel Moran overseeing the south of the county.

News of his departure from Ballina was met with concern from members of Mayo’s Joint Policing Committee.

Cllr Michael Loftus, who is a member of the JPC, recently said that he was ‘really concerned’ that Supt Walsh would not be replaced.

Speaking to Mayo Live this afternoon (Tuesday), Cllr Loftus said he was ‘delighted’ to see a former member of the National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau appointed to the role.

Cllr Loftus recently called for the prevalence of drugs to be tackled following his election as Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council.

The Crossmolina native reiterated his concerns about the effects of drugs and the resulting intimidation of families that can occur.

“That has to be seriously addressed and that’ll be something that I’ll be pushing for consistently,” he said.

As well as repeating calls for more garda manpower, Cllr Loftus called for regional policing fora to be established in each of Mayo’s municipal district.

Many of the foras were abolished in 2014 along with the abolition of the town councils.

“There’s’ one at the moment in Swinford and I’m looking for one in Ballina because that’s an opportunity for the local people and the elected representatives to meet with the local superintendent to voice the concerns of the community,” Cllr Loftus said.

He also called for Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to attend a meeting of the Mayo JPC to hear the concerns of its members.

Commissioner Harris last attended the JPC in 2019, prior to the full implementation of the new Garda Policing Model.

Under the new model, the number of superintendents in Mayo has reduced from six to two.

The new policing divisions will see policing in Mayo overseen by a single Chief Superintendent who will also have responsibility for Roscommon and Longford.

The county previously had one Chief Superintendent in charge of a policing division which covered Mayo only.