Garda Reserve Experiences

Raider190 · 23-08-2013 9:18am

Canyon86 wrote: »

Anybody care to share some experiences?

Have reserves been involved in major incidents?

You will find a large number of GR's have been involved in major incidents but an open forum is perhaps not the best place to discuss . Remember a lot of journo's trawl the boards looking for tit bits of information.

Raider190 · 23-08-2013 9:19am

realdanbreen wrote: »

Why did you go telling them that you lived in a load of different addresses?
Surely you knew that would slow things up big time?:eek:

Sorry you want this person to lie on their BR form. Seriously what can you be thinking ???????.

Canyon86 · 23-08-2013 9:53am

Raider190 wrote: »

You will find a large number of GR's have been involved in major incidents but an open forum is perhaps not the best place to discuss . Remember a lot of journo's trawl the boards looking for tit bits of information.

Thanks for your reply Raider,

I was thinking that alright,can never be too careful i guess,

cheers again

realdanbreen · 23-08-2013 11:45am

Raider190 wrote: »

You will find a large number of GR's have been involved in major incidents but an open forum is perhaps not the best place to discuss . Remember a lot of journo's trawl the boards looking for tit bits of information.

From what I have seen of some of these reserves the only 'Major incident' they would have experienced might be perhaps knocking over a mug of coffe in the canteen or losing a biro when filling out the expense claims!

Raider190 · 23-08-2013 2:07pm

realdanbreen wrote: »

From what I have seen of some of these reserves the only 'Major incident' they would have experienced might be perhaps knocking over a mug of coffe in the canteen or losing a biro when filling out the expense claims!

Ladies and Gentlemen we have here a joker or at least he/she thinks they are. Now what can we gather from their comment
Ill informed
Judgemental
Un experienced
and I would say a Talker rather than a Doer.
Why does he or she go troll somewhere else or perhaps there is a reason for this comment. Rejected maybe form the Regular or the Reserve ????
Sour grapes or just a nasty personality with little to do but knock ordinary decent people devoting their spare time to a worthy cause rather than sitting in front of their 50inch plasma day in day out scratching themselves.

realdanbreen · 23-08-2013 3:00pm

Raider190 wrote: »

Ladies and Gentlemen we have here a joker or at least he/she thinks they are. Now what can we gather from their comment
Ill informed
Judgemental
Un experienced
and I would say a Talker rather than a Doer.
Why does he or she go troll somewhere else or perhaps there is a reason for this comment. Rejected maybe form the Regular or the Reserve ????
Sour grapes or just a nasty personality with little to do but knock ordinary decent people devoting their spare time to a worthy cause rather than sitting in front of their 50inch plasma day in day out scratching themselves.

Now who's being judgemental?
Anyway what are these 'major incidents' that you are talking about or are you perhaps just making it up?

Canyon86 · 23-08-2013 5:52pm

realdanbreen wrote: »

From what I have seen of some of these reserves the only 'Major incident' they would have experienced might be perhaps knocking over a mug of coffe in the canteen or losing a biro when filling out the expense claims!

Are you a serving member of AGS realdanbreen?

How have you seen what the reserves get up to?

Or are you just painting the reserves in a bad light for no reason?

chippy12 · 25-08-2013 7:39pm

, us reserves who are any way serious about the job we do,will not answer such a question ,even more so in a public forum. Put it this way, we go in the car or van or walk the beat with a full time member , a 999 call is received we go and sometimes its only a reserve and a full timer 1st to get there and in the counrty stations you could be waithing awhile for back up to arrive from other towns ect. so we deal with it. weather it's a cat up a tree or something very serious. We have all seen something that we wished we didnt ,as I no I have on a few occasions. But we all new what we signed up for. So hope that answers the qustion asked!!!!

Raider190 · 26-08-2013 1:11am

realdanbreen wrote: »

Now who's being judgemental?
Anyway what are these 'major incidents' that you are talking about or are you perhaps just making it up?

You really think I am going to give you any information on a public forum you can trot on buddy. You have a very low opinion of the GR and I wonder why. If you want info on the GR look up the Garda website because that's the only info you will get from me. Go peddle your negative comments elsewhere

realdanbreen · 27-08-2013 10:21am

Raider190 wrote: »

You really think I am going to give you any information on a public forum you can trot on buddy. You have a very low opinion of the GR and I wonder why. If you want info on the GR look up the Garda website because that's the only info you will get from me. Go peddle your negative comments elsewhere

You said 'A large number of GR's have been involved in major incidents'
I'm just curious to know what you would regard as a 'major incident' that's all.
But hey if you want to get all high & mighty , with your 'trot on buddy' thats OK too.Its amazing how some folk get to feel all superior when they put on a unifiorm.

Canyon86 · 27-08-2013 11:42am

Raider190 wrote: »

You really think I am going to give you any information on a public forum you can trot on buddy. You have a very low opinion of the GR and I wonder why. If you want info on the GR look up the Garda website because that's the only info you will get from me. Go peddle your negative comments elsewhere

Raider,

Would i be able to PM you? Please:cool:

Raider190 · 27-08-2013 12:02pm

Canyon86 wrote: »

Raider,

Would i be able to PM you? Please:cool:

No problem anytime

Raider190 · 27-08-2013 12:03pm

realdanbreen wrote: »

You said 'A large number of GR's have been involved in major incidents'
I'm just curious to know what you would regard as a 'major incident' that's all.
But hey if you want to get all high & mighty , with your 'trot on buddy' thats OK too.Its amazing how some folk get to feel all superior when they put on a unifiorm.

I have no interest in giving you any information about the GR and as i stated earlier go do your trolling elsewhere

Pm1e · 02-12-2013 12:36pm

robbiedublin wrote: »

Congrats to you. I am stationed in Dublin at the min and the work is great. I am mainly involved in local patroling and traffic duties. Hope you enjoy the training.

Best wishes
Robbie

Guys can I ask, are ye all in part time employment while you partake in this? Cheers in advance

Scouser · 02-12-2013 12:45pm

Pm1e wrote: »

Guys can I ask, are ye all in part time employment while you partake in this? Cheers in advance

some would be retired, unemployed, college students, some would have part time employment, most I know are in full time employment tho

Pm1e · 02-12-2013 12:47pm

Scouser wrote: »

some would be retired, unemployed, college students, some would have part time employment, most I know are in full time employment tho

Good stuff thanks for that mate, thats what I was getting at, can someone in FT employment get through it or is a lot on one plate etc.

Scouser · 02-12-2013 12:54pm

Pm1e wrote: »

Good stuff thanks for that mate, thats what I was getting at, can someone in FT employment get through it or is a lot on one plate etc.

depends on how you manage your own affairs in life

I found it quite easy to fit everything because i was committed to it and used days off etc in order to fit in training and shifts. thats just me.

there are plenty of married men and women with full time jobs and kids who do well in excess of their yearly quota for training and duties

it depends of personal circumstance and motivation. youll get out of it what you put in. My advice would be that it gets easier to manage after the initial training phase. if you can get through that your golden

Pm1e · 02-12-2013 12:58pm

Scouser wrote: »

depends on how you manage your own affairs in life

I found it quite easy to fit everything because i was committed to it and used days off etc in order to fit in training and shifts. thats just me.

there are plenty of married men and women with full time jobs and kids who do well in excess of their yearly quota for training and duties

it depends of personal circumstance and motivation. youll get out of it what you put in. My advice would be that it gets easier to manage after the initial training phase. if you can get through that your golden

I hear ya, can I ask are you still in the reserves or have you moved into FT work?

NIMAN · 29-03-2017 8:26pm

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but heard an advert on radio looking for applications for the reserves again.

Got slightly curious about it, and was wondering if I could do it?

Is 48 too old to apply?
Would it suit a shift worker? Could I do training or duties on my off-days, or would I miss it due to my shift pattern?

Commish · 29-03-2017 8:34pm

NIMAN wrote: »

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but heard an advert on radio looking for applications for the reserves again.

Got slightly curious about it, and was wondering if I could do it?

Is 48 too old to apply?
Would it suit a shift worker? Could I do training or duties on my off-days, or would I miss it due to my shift pattern?

Hey,
48 is definitely not too old. I was on shift for the first 8 years and I think it actually suits better. I think the initial training is done over a week now and you stay in the college over the week. I think the reserves is a great initiative and I thoroughly enjoy it.

NIMAN · 29-03-2017 10:21pm

Thanks for that.

Could you give me a rough idea of what a Garda Reserve would do?Is it mostly admin work?
How often, what hours?
Any advice welcomed.

Commish · 30-03-2017 5:23am

It depends if you're in the city or the country. I'm in the country and you could be at anything from mobile patrol, traffic, events or help the S/O out if its busy in the station.

Sgt. Bilko 09 · 30-03-2017 10:04pm

Hi, from my perspective the reserve is good, it gives you a look on life and people you never thought existed. I am 27 now and joined 5 years ago with asperations of going full time. That's what drove me to do it. Having something that inspires to do a ten hour shift for free is worth it Ive often covered the early unit after night shifts if someone was going to court because I genuinely love the job and everything about it baring in mind I have a 9-5. In all honesty the reserve is used against you during recruitment and not for you hence to mass exudose over the last 2 years. When on shift you are either in the station(dealing with queries from lost tourists, lost property and drunk idiots who ask you to call them taxis and the tonnes of people asking you to fill out passports.
You could be out in car, whereby you are responding to calls in and rarely outside of your district(personally be prepared for this as I was sent to my home town on a bench warrant pick up with two colleague and it was a local scrowth who was being arrested, i still haven't be recognised thankfully).
You need to be prepared to leave the sights of lifeless bodies and sexual assault, stabbings other grotesque cases behind you in the station when you going back to your normal job. Full timers are use to this as they do body identifications so many other things like that where it's natural for them to block it out.
You will need to be physically fit as I found out on my first night on the beat in Dublin (not saying where). I'm an ex boxer so I managed to hold my own and run after them.
You need to be able to trust the person you are with and visa versa, being able to work as part of team is huge because a Garda unit may have never had a new member join, in a couple of years and you are there fresh faced and need to be counted when you are needed.
The physical fighting modules in college are great and the instructors are more than helpful but the process is not long enough for you to deal with what you are up against (personally speaking). You need to do your own stuff outside of.thd college physical modules otherwise you are there for the taking in fight as you will most definitely be needed to fight someone to the ground and hold them down and handcuff them which is a lot to do but if you are not able to be physical it's definitely not for you.
The reserve is not as frowned upon as people make out and some of the stories you hear are dramatised. You will get the odd bystander saying "oh your just a reserve you have no power your a wannabe" but you do have power they maybe small powers but they are sufficient for your use on a unit. You won't use most of them but you will need to know them verbatim as everyone is a street solicitor nowadays.

You will need to have a perfect smile and poses for some great shots for those YouTube members who love to record everything.
Ive seen myself twice but thankfully in the background of protests.

The 1000 euro for 208 hours is horrific and I have never put in for it as it's disgraceful (personally speaking) I would never take anyone's overtime if I'm volunteering to do it free it's against my morals.

One massive and it is a big con is if you get a complaint and it's goes all the way to court you will foot the bill for your own legal support to defend you but if follow the code you have nothing to worry about.

But everything else is great I love it and would highly recommend it regardless of age.

When it was established it was thought of as the Irish version of the special constables like in the UK but it is far from it they are more qualified than most full time guards.

Hope this helps you.

Sgt. Bilko 09 · 20-04-2017 10:32pm

This may help also with my point above in relation to complaints, 2 reserve Garda suspended. They can be tried by courts and have criminal charge brought against them while they foot the legal bill. While 23 full time are paid while suspended and representation from the GRA. http://www.thejournal.ie/gardai-suspension-3348226-Apr2017/
Let us know how you decide?

Garda Reserve Experiences

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