Kilkenny Councillor John Coonan expresses “disgust at the violent attacks on elderly across the country”

“I want to express my disgust at the violent attacks on elderly across the country”.

So said Cllr John Coonan at Friday’s Kilkenny City Municipal District meeting.

It’s after a number of older citizens locally have shared their worry and stress caused by rising development in such activity throughout Ireland’s cities and counties.

Cllr Coonan says it would be remiss of us all if we didn’t stand up, side by side, with our elderly community and give them a guarantee of support; “We’ve all noticed and seen on the news and heard about the increasing number of violent attacks on elderly people living alone in isolated places and indeed in many different places, you can be isolated living in a city as well, also as a member of the older people’s forum I heard some of my colleagues expressing that view that they’re a little bit more afraid now because of what they’ve been hearing so I thought it incumbent on us as public representatives that we would talk about the matter, raise it, reassure those people and indicate the role and very vital and important role that we all play, individually and collectively, to make our communities safer and reassure those people as well”.

Cllr Coonan, who’s a member of the Older People’s Forum, told KCLR News there are simple ways we can all help to ensure everybody feels safer and it’s also important that such incidents aren’t exaggerated; “Most places are safe, lovely places to live and we do intermingle with our own communities which is very important but doing the basic things I suggested like simply knowing the people who are living alone in our area, we all know that, and people who might be a little bit vulnerable during these very difficult times and just coming out of Covid that we call to see that they’re okay and that we let them know that they can give us a ring at any time, that could be very valuable reassurance for these people as well, we all know as well that the Gardaí do and play a central role and a fantastic job”.

And he says the rise in community text alert groupings across the county, such as the one set up last week in Graine near Urlingford, also helps to allay fears; “It’s very important that older people who are listening to the incidents that have happened in recent times are reassured by their local communities that we are safe and they are secure with us and that we will continue to look after them and that we will ring the Gardaí and other bodies who are invested with that information to help us and assist us with making our community safer for everybody concerned, including ourselves”.