Popular Navan Garda happy to be gone to the dogs

Well known for his work around Navan as sergeant in charge of community policing, Brian Dineen has bid farewell to the town and this week takes up his dream job with the National Garda Dog Unit.
A native of Kerry, Brian worked as a garda in Tallaght and moved to Navan when he was promoted to the rank of sergeant eight years ago. He worked in mainstream policing for a year before being assigned to the community policing unit.

While Brian loved his time in Navan, he is looking to a new chapter in his career after beating off tough competition to join the dog unit. His two dogs won’t just be part of his work life, they will also live with him and very much be part of the family as well as accompanying Brian to work each day.

Brian’s colleagues and many friends from various local voluntary organisations joined him for a coffee morning in St Mary’s Parish Hall in Navan last week to thank him for his service to the community and wish him luck in his new job
As part of his role in community policing, Brian worked with local schools, neighbourhood watch and community alert groups and was also to the fore in traffic management for football matches, blessings of the graves and other
events. 
The community unit also puts on a Christmas dinner for local senior citizens every year and he worked with other groups such as Flexibus, Meath River Rescue, Order of Malta, the Irish Red Cross and St Mary’s Parish.
He was also worked closely with Meath County Council on obtaining Navan’s Purple Flag.
“I loved my time here. I will miss Navan. There is a great community spirit. There is great work being done by local groups,” he said.

SEE THE FULL GALLERY OF BRIAN'S FAREWELL PARTY HERE

In his new role, Brian will be based in Kilmainham.
“I’m from Kerry originally from a farming background and love animals. I was 23 years in mainstream policing and I thought for the next seven to ten years I would like to diversify into a specialised unit.
“I will get a general purpose alsation first and then a second dog that will be for detecting explosives or drugs or for missing persons searches. We are a national unit and dog handlers can be sent anywhere.”
“The dogs come home with you every day and you travel to work with the dogs.
“Before we could never have a dog as it wouldn’t be fair to leave it out the back all day,” said Brian adding that his seven-year-old daughter is very excited at the prospect of finally having a dog.