‘It was a privilege for me to be able to police here’

One of the longest ever serving gardai in Navan, Sergeant Liam McCarville has retired from the force, bringing to an end a career spanning 40 years.

As a newly qualified garda in 1982, his first posting was to Enfield where he spent two years and other than a year-long stint in Dundalk, Sgt McCarville has spent the rest of his career in the Navan District. Through his role as community sergeant working with many local groups and organisations, Sgt McCarville has become of the best known serving members in the area and the turnout to his farewell function on Friday night was testament to the high regard he was held in locally.

Friends, family and colleagues joined Sgt McCarville at his local Navan O'Mahony's GAA Club on Friday night to pay tribute to him for his years of service to the community and to wish him well in his retirement.

"Looking back on my 40 years, as a young garda looking ahead, it seems a long time but for me looking back it went by very fast.

"In that 40 years, I have met some wonderful people and worked with great organisations and great groups of people and colleagues," said Sgt McCarville.

Since he first came to Navan, Sgt McCarville said the town has grown hugely and this brings more demands on policing and more challenges.

"When I came to Navan in 1984, there was the main centre of the town but there was no development outside it at that stage. As the years passed, Johnstown developed and there is a huge population there. The retail parks were developed and that brought a lot of extra people to the town as well and the new housing estates brought the population up. That brought more demands on policing and a lot more challenges. There were more businesses too and more opportunities for crime so that increased a bit as well.

"We are a bit under resourced in Meath and I would be hopeful that some of the next group of Gardai to come out of Templemore will be assigned here to boost numbers."

Originally from Monaghan, Sgt McCarville joined An Garda Siochana in 1982. "The training was a bit different then" he recalled. "You did 26 weeks of initial training and were sent out then. My first station was Enfield. It was a much smaller village then with a much smaller population.

"Because of the explosives factory, they needed extra gardai in Enfield for security and protection. We had about 20 gardai at that time," he recalled.

It was while in Enfield that Liam met his wife Linda Magee and the couple moved to Navan in 1984 and reared their family of four - Ashley, Ciara, James and Rory.

Sgt McCarville spent the rest of his career in Navan other than a period of just over a year where he was assigned to Dundalk after being promoted to Sergeant in 2009 but he returned to Navan the following year.

He spent much of his career in regular policing, as well as a number of years in the detective unit investigating serious crime, but it was his move into community policing where he spent the last eight years that he really came into his own and enjoyed interacting with many groups and organisations.

In this role, Sgt McCarville was overseeing community gardai and dealing with neighbourhood watch and community alert groups as well as the schools programme. The role also involved interacting with the business community and engaging with community groups, youth groups and groups for the elderly.

"We encouraged communities to set up neighbourhood watch or community alert. For people within estates or communities to get a committee together and set it up so that everyone is keeping an eye out for each other. Then if there are any issues that arise, the community garda assigned to that area as a co-ordinator can respond and extra patrols, extra gardai on the beat and visits to people in the area can be put in place.

"It is about trying to eliminate any anti-social behaviour and nip it in bud before it develops into something bigger, and it does work."

Community policing also played a major role in the response to the Covid pandemic and while it was a very challenging time, Sgt McCarville said community policing units had really come to the fore.

"We interacted with a lot of elderly and vulnerable people to help with necessities like delivering shopping or prescriptions and calling to see them to see how their general welfare was when their own families couldn't get to them and this would have been on a daily basis at the height of the pandemic.

"I think a lot of people really appreciated the work of Gardai during that time and it was great for us to be in a position to help them out as best we could. Community engagement is all about responding to the public when they need us most."

Sgt McCarville has also been coordinator with Meath GAA for more than a decade and worked with GAA officials in advance of big games to form a policing plan. "I would meet with senior officials from the event management team to go over procedures for going in and out of the event, parking, the traffic management plan and then go back and put a policing plan in place. Thankfully it generally always went well, other than traffic issues which are to be expected."

He was also the coordinator in the Meath Garda Division with the Coroner Service, a role that could often be tough, dealing with grieving families.

"I was the person in between the families and the coroner's office. I liaised with the investigating gardai to get their depositions ready and made sure families were notified. I would meet with the families and explain how the procedures worked.

"For many families, they are hearing for the first time how their loved ones died. There have been some very sad cases and very tough cases over the years. A lot of suicides and fatal traffic accidents.

"It was very tough at times. You could see the pain that some families were still going through and all you can do is treat them with compassion and understanding and give as much support as you can, and advise them of other supports available."

Looking back at how things have changed since he first became a Garda, Sgt McCarville said one of the major changes is advances in technology and the introduction of computerised systems.

"When I started first, it was all pen and paper and everything was recorded in books and diaries. There were no computerised systems and no mobile phones. One of the biggest and most beneficial changes was the introduction of the PULSE system. It streamlined everything. It may not be the most modern IT system now but it was hugely beneficial to have everything at your fingertips."

Another advance that has helped in policing in the town centre was the introduction of CCTV and this is soon to be expanded with additional cameras.

"The town CCTV system is another useful tool and has helped decrease public order incidents at weekend. "We are able to view it and be alerted if something has started and be in a position to deal with it before it turns into something bigger. It doesn't eliminate public order but it does help. Extra cameras are due to be put up too, including in the Johnstown area."

There have also been changes in the garda districts in the county over the years. "When I came to Navan first there was Navan itself but also Duleek, Slane, Collon and Ardee initially. As the years passed the boundaries changed and now there is Navan itself along with Slane and Nobber has come into

it."

Sgt McCarville through his work with Nobber, knew the McEntee family well and said he was delighted to see local TD, Helen McEntee become Minister for Justice, with responsibility for an Garda Siochana.

Although Sergeant McCarville could have left after 30 years, he enjoyed the move into community policing and said it was a very satisfying role and especially during the pandemic and he decided to stay on to the end of his career to support the public as best he could.

"Looking back as I come to the end of my 40 years, I was delighted to be able to police in the Navan area and interact with so many good people. I met some wonderful colleagues, members of the public, business people, community and sporting organisations and everyone supported me very well over the years. It was a privilege for me to be able to police here and I would like to thank everyone for their support over the last 40 years."