One Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, a Fine Gael TD in Co Offaly, has been issuing press releases (I presume) to get her name in the local blatts. It seems that there is a major crime wave in Co Offaly and that armed Gardaí are required to counter it, as well as Garda stations every couple of hundred yards. Perhaps tourists should be advised to avoid the county.
Anyway, the blatt’s account ends with this:
I intend also to support An Garda Síochána with their proposal to have Shannonbridge Garda Station re-opened due to its strategic location on the Shannon River.
Shannonbridge is strategically located if you want to be able to repel a French invasion force that landed on the west coast. It is also strategically located if you want to protest against Ireland’s unwillingness to slow global warming. Otherwise it is hard to see any strategic value, unless the Gardaí are reviving their nonsensical idea about smuggling by boats along the Shannon.
Irish waterways history 