‘Dream come true’ for 206 new graduating Gardaí
206 Gardaí were sworn into the force in the single largest intake since 2019.
Newly sworn in members of An Garda Síochána have described a “dream come true” as they were attested at Templemore Garda College.
On Friday morning, 206 Gardaí were sworn into the force in the single largest intake since 2019.
The new graduating class puts current numbers at 14,733 Sworn Gardaí, 3,683 Garda Staff, 304 Garda Reserves and 604 Garda Trainees.
The new intake comprises 142 men and 64 women, with 24 born outside Ireland from 15 countries including Brazil, Nigeria, Poland, Canada and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Since recruitment recommenced in 2022, some 2,200 Gardaí have now been attested.
Kasha Naskręt who is from Poland but has lived in Ireland since 2006, was joined by her son five-year-old son Max, along with her husband and daughter, at the ceremony on Friday.
“I am so grateful that they could make it and they can be with me in the most important day in my life,” she said.
“This is what I always wanted to do, and my dreams come true eventually.
“So it is very emotional, it is, and this is what I always wanted to do, I have to say.
“I work in the hospital before, I had my own business before, so I have a good background, I work also as an interpreter, so a good few things I can bring to the Gards as well.”
She added: “It is a big day for Max. Max, he really supported me.
“It was quite tough, to be honest with you, to be here out of home for the whole week, and I was just a weekend mother for the last nine months, but we made it through.”
Brendan Lawrence, a former journalist from Co Wicklow, said he joined the Gards at 49-years-old because he “needed something new”.
“I love journalism, I loved being a sports editor, I loved covering games in Wicklow, but as I say, it’s a changing industry,” he said.
“Social media just ravaged our industry. I think, and I just thought there was sort of an irrelevance creeping into our industry, which I just didn’t like, and I just needed something more challenging and 15 years left of working, if I’m lucky, and I just wanted a new direction.”
Kayleigh Shine, who plays football for Athlone Town, said she was competing with the team in the women’s Champions League in Poland and will be travelling on Saturday morning to play the second round.
“I’ve discussed it anyways with Athlone, so I think they understand that I’m leaning towards the Gards now at the moment obviously,” she said.
“So trying to balance it now is the next story, but I’ll try and make it work if I can.”
Asked if any of her new colleagues were on the verge of the knockout stages of the Champions League she said: “I’m not sure at the moment, not in Ireland, anyways I don’t think.
“But there’s a good few, I suppose, in our league that do play football and are in the Gards as well.”
Alexandra Pasztorova from Slovakia, now living in Co Tipperary, said coming from a background of being in the army and studying criminology she “wanted to find a best fit to combine both”.
“When I joined the army, I really wanted to get some discipline, and with my criminology studies, I just really wanted to get some knowledge of the legal part of it, so I really think An Garda Síochána is a bit of both”.