Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ON 23 JULY, 1997, a crime was reported on Rathlin Island for the first time in living memory.
According to an RTÉ broadcast from that day, a group of teenagers from the mainland stole a car from outside a guesthouse on the island, which is off the coast of Co Antrim. The youths went joyriding before dumping the car in the harbour.
A new ferry service had just been launched, making the island more accessible to visitors. Resident Mary Cecil told RTÉ in 1997 that it brought about “profound changes”.
“You just can’t leave your property unprotected now, it’s a just a very sad thing.”
Twenty years on, the island has experienced a surge in tourism – but not in crime.
Sinn Féin councillor Cara McShane said it is rare, if ever, that the police have to deal with an issue on the island.
“People rely on the tourism in the high season so they can survive in the winter, so people look after their environment and they look after each other,” she said.
The population on the island has also grown, with around 145 people living there on a permanent basis, and McShane said there has been a “baby boom” in recent years.
“The school is actually just in the process of getting additional space for a preschool and storage. It’s great to see that young people are staying on the island.”
She said representatives “fight battles” to ensure that people who are born on Rathlin Island, and who grew up there, can remain there as adults, earn a living and start their own families.
DUP councillor Michelle Knight-McQuillan said the community has “really embraced” the surge in tourism and has capitalised on it as a way of keeping the island self-sufficient.
“It’s not a very big place, so they are limited in how they can improve their economy,” she explained. “The funny thing about Rathlin is that people don’t just have one job, they have two or three jobs. The guy who brings you across on the ferry is also the fireman”.
She said a number of small indigenous businesses have opened up and a hostel also opened on the island in recent years.
As for crime, Knight-McQuillan said Rathlin is “still a very safe place” 20 years in from its first reported crime.
“Everybody knows everybody. If someone new arrives on the island, everyone knows,” she said. ”
So, it’s not the sort of place you could get away with something. It wouldn’t be hard to figure out if there was a crime.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Heard there was a whistle stolen there a few years back
1575 there was a massacre of 3000 women and children . English behaving like Isis back then !
I had an uncle who did security in Mosney. Any time he caught someone jumping over the fence, he’d push them back over so they could finish off their holiday.
I’m from the country and have currently live in Dublin. My local shop has security on the door all day long because the locals (mainly kids) would rob the snot out of your nose.
@Shane Dunne: There’s a Tesco in finglas I know of that has security on the door constantly. Unreal
@Aaron Gibson: that’s normal in certain parts of Dublin. . They don’t care if it’s on their own door step ..
Was in Rathlin last week . Lovely spot n people. Culturally very Irish. There’s a Gaelscoil in nearby Baile an Chaistil.
@Niall Conneely: it’s a strange article. The DUP have as much presence/interest in that part of the country as Fine Gael do why they’re quoting one of their councillors is bizarrely
Rathlin served as a link between Ireland and Scotland. It had its own dialect of Irish, which was a mixture of Irish and Scottish gaelic.
@Seán Ó Briain: That would be the Ulster-Scots dialect.
@Nigel Mcatamney: No – not Ulster-Scots. The Irish language was spoken on Rathlin and the specific dialect of Rathlin was a mixture of Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
@Nigel Mcatamney: You mean when someone speaks English with a drunk accent?
It was like Boyz in the Hood.
All tesco extras have security not just clearwater in finglas
@David Grey: I was actually referring to the Tesco express beside the annunciation church. Not all Tesco expresses have security on the door, who open the door for every single person who comes in or out of the place.
I thought they had stolen a whistle!
@Ann Casey: 2 minutes too late ann
‘Right lads, what’s the escape route’
??????????
‘OK, forget it’
On the island of Cape Clare they have there own way of doing things. I heard from an elderly lady who having had an operation needed to spend a month in bed to recuperate. She asked the owner of the hens and cockerels in the field next to her bedroom to kindly moved them to another field as they were disturbing her sleep. Nothing was done. When she recovered and got her strength back, she went into the field and strangled every single bird. Nothing further was said or done by either party.
A mountain bike went missing on Valentia Island a few days back near the Clock Tower in Knightstown.
@Beachmaster: i do wonder about you .
So what if there’s a fire when the fireman is being the ferry captain?
The pesky Vikings were the first scoundrels to hit the island.
I can see octupussy planing a crabby crime in some plaice on the island
have your say