The ICCI youth club organised a youth trip with our community Gardaí, Garda Deidre Gately and Garda Darragh O’Brien, to the Garda College in Templemore on Thursday, February 20th. We stopped off in Portlaoise mosque on the way to pick up their youth leader Sr Sarah and her youth group. On arriving to Templemore our visit commenced with a very informative talk by Sergeant John Reynolds. He shared with us the history of policing in the Irish state and when An Garda Síochána which means ‘Guardians of the Peace’ were established. He also detailed the criteria for joining the Garda course and the studies and training that the students undertake. The floor was opened up to questions, which the youth took full advantage of.
There are many nationalities in An Garda Síochána and at present, we are still awaiting a change in the legislation that will allow the beard, wearing of hijab and turbans, like in other countries. This is something that the new government will have to address.
After the talk, the youths enjoyed a delicious lunch sponsored by the ICCI youth department in the Garda canteen. It was busy with soon to be Garda graduates, many of whom were preparing for their graduation on February 21st.
We then went to view the Garda museum, showing the history of the Gardaí, old uniforms as well as uniforms of the different law enforcements from around the world. The youths and their leaders also got to try on some of the coats and hats for photos.
On the way back to Dublin, we stopped off in Portlaoise mosque to pray Duhr and Asr before arriving back to Dublin at about 5:30pm.
It was a very informative and enjoyable trip. Many thanks to everyone who made it happen, our bus drivers Br’s Ali and Hassan and also to the participants who gave us some lovely feedback, a few of which are shared below:
- I had fun with friends and I enjoyed the Garda talk and dressing up.
- It was really fun. Met a lot of new people. Really enjoyed it. Love to do something like this again.
- I had fun. The people are nice.
- It was fun.
- It was a great experience to learn about the opportunities we have if we wanted to be a Garda.
- It was fun and very enjoyable. It was good learning about the Garda and the food was good.
- The trip taught me about the job of the Garda and a career path.
