Ex-journalist Amy Ni Riada has joined the force in Midleton
(Image: Brendan Gleeson)
A former journalist decided to join the Garda after watching riots convulse Dublin while she was working in Africa.
Amy Ni Riada, who worked for Radio Kerry, TG4 and RTE traded in her microphone for an Asp baton after watching gardai taking on rioters who caused havoc in Dublin in November 2023 following an alleged attack on kids from a creche in the city centre. Kerry born Ms Ni Riada, now serving with the force in Midleton, said she knew she wanted to join up when she saw the footage of the trouble – and how gardai from all over Ireland rushed to the city to help their under-attack colleagues.
Garda Ni Riada was one of 195 full time and 17 reserve officers to graduate from the force’s training college in Templemore, Co Tipperary on Friday. 47 of those new officers were confirmed for the Southern Region, with 36 including Ms Ni Riada expected for Cork. The new recruit said she was living abroad when the riots happened – and decided to come home to join up.
She said: “What came about while I was abroad was the riots that happened in November 2023 those Dublin riots, and when I was considering my options coming home, it was those riots, I suppose that inspired me to join the Guards. For some people, I know maybe that would send them running in the opposite direction. But for me, it was just kind of an eye opener that I wanted to be stuck in and get involved that way.”
Garda Amy Ni Riada in her previous career as a broadcast journalist with Radio Kerry.(Image: Amy Ni Riada/X)
When asked what was it about the riots that made her join the force, Garda Ni Riada said: “I think it was the Garda response, the regular members on regular units that just picked up their armour and up they went up to Dublin. Obviously you had your public order units who were front and centre of that, but you had regular guards as well. So it was that for me. I could see myself hopping into a patrol car and hitting the road for Dublin no matter where I was stationed in the country.”
Garda Ni Riada spent several years working in journalism and public relations in east Africa where she worked on issues such as violence against women – experience that she believes she can bring to bear on her new job, the Irish Mirror reports. She said: “One thing I was really focused on for the couple of years before I came home, was vulnerable people, the most vulnerable people in society. There’s not a more perfect place, I suppose, to be working face to face with vulnerable people than in An Garda Siochana.”
She added: “I traveled around East Africa. I worked primarily in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, mostly in Kenya. I covered a lot of issues, like climate change, any type of social issues, violence against women, anything like that. So I really was face to face with people who were just in the most unimaginable circumstances.
“And those skills now can be transferred from dealing with those people over there. There’s an awful lot of similarities in the issues that they’re facing over there. Obviously, they are dealing with severe poverty, and we are in a more privileged position than what they would be with say in the slums in Nairobi.
“However, there are so many similarities between what a woman with six children is going through in a slum in in Nairobi, and what a woman is going through with six children at home in a house in Castleisland in County Kerry.”
Garda Ni Rian will be based in Midleton in Cork. Other graduates included Garda Jeremiah Bourke – who at 51 is the oldest officer to pass out in the force. He said he was looking forward to the challenge.
The officer, from Borrisoleigh in Tipperary, said: “It is a challenging job, you are doing a lot of different things, you are dealing with a lot of challenging situations. But I will deal with those when the time comes. For the moment now, I have to focus on the next two years, which is my probation period.”
And Garda Kristina Courtney, from Dublin, said she decided to join the force – after working as a member of the production team on RTE’s Crimecall show. She said: “I worked on Crimecall for a number of years and I got an insight into how An Garda Siochana works. I loved every single bit of it and I was motivated to become a guard.
“I hired all the crew. I got the guys to match the bad guys so everything matched and I also assisted the guards in the case when we were doing shoots.”
