De-horning crate amongst items stolen from Newbliss farm

SURVEY Over half of all farmers have been victim of thefts

Farming/industrial were stolen from a yard in Newbliss, earlier this week prompting gardaí to issue an appeal.

Thieves made off with a Condon De-horning crate, a Blue Clean power washer, red Draper space heater, petrol Honda water pump, a 3 ton jack, battery charger and a wheelbarrow from a premises in Lisnagore over the night of Monday, June 5 into Tuesday morning, June 6.

Anyone who has information or observed anything suspicious or have been offered any of these items, is asked to contact Monaghan Gardaí on 047 77240.

The thefts come in the same week as researchers at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) found that more than half of the 1,333 farmers surveyed had been victims of theft.

The research report was compiled by Dr Nicola Hughes and Dr Matt Bowden, criminologists at the School of Social Sciences, Law and Education at TU Dublin.

The survey was conducted in Autumn 2022 and is based on a sample of 1,330 responses from the farming community.

While most farmers (71%) reported thefts to An Garda Síochána, a proportion of those participating in the survey did not. 29% of participants did not report their experience of theft to An Garda Síochána, compared with 19% in national victim surveys.

In the TU Dublin survey, the primary reasons given for not reporting were based on a belief that (i) the incident was not serious enough; (ii) that the police would do nothing about it; and (iii) that there was insufficient evidence to warrant police action.

Speaking about the survey, which was the result of a collaboration between the University and the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), researcher Dr Matt Bowden said: “While there has been much attention to issues of rural crime in recent years, we have very little systematic data. This research highlights the Irish farming community’s experience of crime and victimisation, and their perceptions of crime prevention, and helps us to better understand crimes committed against farms and the measures farmers take to prevent their victimisation.”

Continuing, Dr Bowden said, “This survey was made possible with the active engagement of the farming community through a very positive collaboration with the IFA, and we hope that this is the start of a more solid knowledge base on issues related to rural crime and crime prevention in Ireland, giving a voice to the farmers experience of crime.”