There was a massive crowd, estimated at 1,500, at the meeting, entitled “Save our Community” in the Anner Hotel.

Robert O’Shea, who went public following two robberies at his farmyard on successive nights – the first on the day he buried his mother – got the ball rolling. The massive public reaction when he shared his story last year in the Irish Farmers Journal began the momentum that saw him address people crowded into every meeting room in the hotel, with the meeting relayed throughout.

Driving bans

Kieran Cleary, the solicitor who represented the Corcoran family terrorised in their home in a case where the criminals were heavily sentenced last week, spoke. He proposed that fines are collected, like property tax, as source, and that people out on bail should be monitored with electronic tags.

Cleary also argued that passengers in a car used in a crime should have a lifetime driving ban. “If we can keep them off the road, we can keep them from our homes,” he said. “I’ve had a great life in Clonmel; my children have had a great life. I’m terrified for my grandchildren”.

He got a standing ovation from the crowd. “It’s not drugs, it’s just gangsters,” he added.

Speaker after speaker from the floor recounted how they had been victims of crime. One farmer said that footprints in the diesel spilled around his yard clearly showed the criminals were accompanied by a small child, maybe no more than five or six years old. “You can’t ramble into your neighbours' any more, we all live behind locked gates now”, he said.

Senior gardaí present were due to respond later in the meeting.

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38% of farms have been burgled