Cork and Dublin gangs blamed for burglary spree in Kerry

Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Myers

Anne Lucey

Six houses in Killarney were burgled in less than three hours at the weekend, gardaí have said.

Gangs of "travelling criminals" are coming from Cork city and south county Dublin to Co Kerry, the new Kerry Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Myers said.

Killarney gardaí issued an appeal for information after six houses were broken into along a stretch of road off the N22 near Killarney on Saturday evening.

A seventh burgled house, 10 minutes away in Ballyvourney, Co Cork, may also be the work of the same gang, Garda sources said.

Seven rare GAA medals, some over 100 years old, including a gold 1913 All-Ireland football medal, a silver medal from the 1908 Munster final and a 1913 Croke Cup medal, were among the items stolen from one house in Muckross.

Small amounts of cash and jewellery were taken from other houses.

It's believed travelling criminals were probably involved in the break-ins in Kerry. All of the houses were unoccupied at the time - between 6pm and shortly before 9pm on Saturday.

Residents returned to discover windows smashed and doors forced.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee, Supt Myers said a number of intelligence-led operations were being carried out by gardaí and there were "a number of lines of enquiry".

The Garda chief also said Kerry had its own home -grown criminals, and not all burglaries were the result of travelling criminals.

However, in the current crime spike in rural Kerry, "travelling criminals" from other parts of the country were at work, he said. "Gangs from Cork city and south county Dublin are coming down here at present," Supt Myers revealed.

It was the second time the Muckross/Glenflesk area was targeted. Last year, several burglaries took place in the same area, which is easily accessed from the national secondary road from Cork/Dublin.

And there had been a series of burglaries also in Killorglin two weeks ago, and in the Beaufort area.

The closure of the Garda station in Beaufort was a factor in the increase, Cllr John Francis Flynn said, and he asked for extra Garda patrols.

Garda Community text alerts were effective, the meeting was told. There was a drop in burglaries in Kerry in 2016 to 175, down from 387 in 2015, after a number of arrests and jailings.