Community Alert is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The crime prevention initiative was set up following a particularly brutal attack on two elderly brothers in east Cork in 1984. It has helped to provide a safer environment in rural Ireland.
The attack on the Willis brothers at their isolated farmhouse in Ballycurreen, Glaunthane, Co Cork, in 1984 shocked the country and provoked the local community into action.
James Willis, aged 75, was murdered and his 72-year-old brother John was badly injured by three masked intruders on the night of 19/20 November.
A subsequent trial of the three men responsible heard that James had suffered 82 injuries, including nine fractured ribs.
The local Community Council in the town of Carrigtwohill began holding meetings and in early 1985 the first Community Alert was founded with the help of the national voluntary organisation Muintir na Tíre.
Margaret Hartnett was a member of the original Community Alert committee and she remembers the shock caused by the attack at time when murder in rural areas was almost unheard of.
"It was completely devastating really, because you had grown up in a rural area, and you thought everybody knew everybody, and you didn't have a fear. But now you were living with fear because you didn't know if it was going to happen to you".
John Dennehy was a local garda in Carrigtwohill at the time. He said John Willis died just over a year after the attack.
"They were lovely men. All they did was work hard, a big farm, a bit of hunting on a Sunday and listen to Micheál O'Hehir, that's all they did. And they loved to see you calling to the house. But they got an awful doing.
"These were very honest, honourable men that never did anything to anybody," he said.
Margaret and John were part of a group of former members of the local community alert who gathered recently to talk about how the crime prevention initiative started.
A number of meetings were held in the aftermath and as further attacks happened around the country, groups were formed in other areas. Today, over 40 years later, there are 1,000 local branches.
Muintir na Tíre, working with An Garda Síochána, facilitated the development of the system.
Diarmuid Cronin Community Alert Development officer said the prior existence of Muintir na Tíre in Carrigtowhill helped form the correct response.
"When those series of murders occurred in East Cork, instead of resorting to vigilantism or some other expression, they formed community alert.
"The people of Ireland immediately grasped that this was the way to work with law and order to combat the thugs that were going around attacking people".
Margaret Hartnett said there were so few murders back in those days that it caused fear throughout the country particularly in rural areas.
"People stopped going out, and they stopped meeting people.
"They would go to bed early so that there'd be no sign of life in a place, so that people that were driving around wouldn't notice."
Community Alert groups concentrated on getting people to take precautions like having proper locks, lighting and not leaving the back door open. That was something which changed country living.
"The culture of having your door open was the way you lived, because if somebody came to your door and knocked and you could be out the back and you didn't answer, they'd have missed a visit. They desperately wanted visitors, and it created a sense of community," said Sarah Kelleher, another early member of the local Community Alert.
There was also a big drive to get older people to put their money into bank accounts as many wrongly believed that they would lose their pensions if the government found out they had savings.
The community alert signs were put up as a deterrent, people kept an eye out for their neighbours and alarms were provided.
These measures helped to reduce crime. As Diarmuid Cronin points out there were around 1,000 aggravated burglaries a year at the time but now they are a "a real rarity".
But he feels that giving people a sense that the community around them cared was probably one of the most important aspects of community alert.
Today there are still issues about criminals calling to remote homes and trying to gain access under the pretext of carrying out jobs like fixing roofs, tree surgery or painting.
But the biggest issue now is digital crime through text and online scams, he says.
Community Alert has also gone digital with its own alerts about scams on its local WhatsApp groups.
And gardaí can access these messages as well which also provide alerts for problems like anti-social behaviour or missing people.
Tipperary Town Community Garda John Hennessey said: "It's fantastic, we're getting really quick and up to date information, and our response then is very quick. It's been a hugely positive addition to the systems we already have in place."
RTÉ Nationwide will have more on the history of Community Alert on RTÉ One at 7pm tonight.
