‘The people have really stepped up and are looking after each other’

Gardai Edel Dugdale and Stacey Looby - along with so many of their colleagues  - have been at the heart of seeing communities come together to support each other during the last 12 months. They spoke to SALLY HARDING about a year like no other

Communities have been at the heart of this pandemic since the first case of Covid-19 was reported on this island early last year.

From local organisations with long standing traditions to groups of concerned residents in villages up and down the county sporadically coming together like armies to protect the elderly from an unknown global emergency that threatened our most vulnerable, people came out in their droves.

From picking up prescriptions and delivering shopping to acts as simple as standing at someone’s front gate and chatting with them through a window, offering a familiar face and some assurance in a time when nothing was assured.

Our good citizens proved that without the compassion, care and good will of people in our localities when the chips are down we really have very little.

Community Garda Stacey Looby from Navan who was named an Inspirational Hero in the Gala Retail and Virgin Media Inspiration Awards last year says that she has seen “communities coming together” like never before.

Stacey was nominated for her hard work, dedication and positivity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her efforts focused on the elderly, from arranging shopping and collecting medicines, to surprising those cocooning alone with birthdays to remember.

She was also behind an appeal for children to make Easter cards for those in nursing homes. Originally hoping for around 100 cards, she received over 500.

More recently Stacey organised a Go Purple Day to raise funds and awareness for domestic violence

Speaking on what it has been like working through the pandemic, she said:

“It is so different to any other year that I have ever worked. I have really seen communities come together whether that has been the GAA club, the Navan Community Singers or the neighbourhood watches.

“People have really stepped up and are looking after each other.”

The caring Navan community Garda set up an elderly and vulnerable register at the beginning of the first lockdown that enabled members of the public to come forward with names of people they were concerned about living on their own.

“I keep a note of these elderly people and where they are living and call into them and check that they are ok and if they need anything.

“When someone rings worried about an elderly person and tell me the only person they see from one end of the week to the next is the postman I just think I have to do something."

Stacey says there has been no shortage of people showing acts of kindness through lockdown.

"Last year there was a woman living on Flower Hill and she couldn’t get out of the bed, it was her birthday and she had no family except one niece in Duleek. I knew she loved music so the Navan Community Singers who hadn't met since March came together in September and met outside her house and sang for her, it was lovely." Someone who has also been at the core of community life over the last year is Trim based garda Edel Dugdale who has opened up and reflected about her time working on the frontline during the pandemic.

“Our role is to support the most vulnerable in the community, people who are isolated, have limited family or social support, the elderly, those with a disability that ultimately can’t get out to do their normal day to day things because of the pandemic that’s where we step in.

“The best thing has come out of Covid has been able to reach out to members of the public that you normally wouldn’t have gotten to because a lot of people don’t ask for help and it is the ones that never ask for help are the ones you worry about the most.

“That has been the most rewarding from my perspective because I can get them the help they need whether that is home help or meals on wheels and make contact with them once a week.

“I’d urge anyone who has any concerns for themselves or a family member in the community please don’t hesitate to contact their local community Garda. No one is a burden when it comes to asking us to do anything, there is never a problem.”

Last year Delvin native Edel cycled 99km through nine villages in full uniform and raised €24k for Féileacáin - the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association. She was inspired to organise the event having stopped a local family at a checkpoint during lockdown as they carried their little girl’s coffin to her resting place.

Nickita and Anthony Farrelly’s daughter Molly was born on 18th April when Nickita was just 15 weeks pregnant and tragically passed away leaving the couple devastated.

“I think of Nickita and Anthony all of the time, it’s something I’ll never forget because thankfully it is so rare for something like that to happen in my job.”

Garda Dugdale says the public is cooperating with current restrictions she added:

“I have spoken to a number of colleagues who are out on checkpoints or doing calls and 90 percent of people are doing what the government have asked of us, people have been very polite, when we ask where they are going at a checkpoint, they tell us, they have their letters and their IDs ready.

“Now more than ever we need to adhere to public health advice, the numbers are coming down which is great but we still need to keep pushing together.”