Launch of Roscommon/Longford Division Sixth Annual Garda Youth Awards 2024

An Garda Síochána, Roscommon/Longford Division is delighted to announce the launch of the Sixth Annual Roscommon/Longford Garda Youth Awards, in association with Roscommon and Longford County Councils who are sponsoring the initiative again this year.

The Roscommon/Longford Garda Youth Awards celebrate outstanding young people between the ages of 13 and 21 years.  An Garda Síochána, Roscommon/Longford, in conjunction with Roscommon and Longford County Councils recognise that a lot of good work is being done by young people in every community in these 2 Counties.

The nomination process is now open and An Garda Síochána in Roscommon and Longford are inviting the public to nominate a young person or group of young people they know, who were committed to making a difference to their Community during the last year.

Chairperson of the Roscommon/Longford Youth Awards Inspector David Cryan commented that the Garda Youth Awards celebrates outstanding young people and recognises the good work being done by these individuals, ‘Having been involved in the Awards for the last 4 years, I never cease to be amazed and inspired by the resilience displayed by the young people of Counties Roscommon and Longford who strive to make the lives of people in their local Communities better despite often dealing with personal adversity themselves.  Roscommon/Longford winners have also been successful winning National Awards each year and I would encourage members of the public to nominate someone whom they know in their locality’.

Nominations can be made under any of the 4 categories:

Individual Award – Making a positive contribution to their Community, making it a better place to live in.

Group Award – Two or more young people making a positive contribution to their Community, making it a better place to live.

Special Achievement Award – Overcome difficult circumstances, defied all the odds and whose commitment deserves recognition.

Community Safety Award – Through a crime prevention or safety initiative/innovation, have made their Community a safer place to live in.

The Roscommon/Longford Garda Division were delighted to have had a National Winner in 2023.  Latisha McCrudden from Lisacul, County Roscommon was the winner for the Special Achievement Award after becoming involved in local community and volunteer work and being instrumental in promoting the rights of Travellers through her work with the Irish Traveller Movement national forum. 

Latisha is always considerate and mindful of others, motivated, respectful and conscientious, and above all she believes in the goodness of people despite not always having witnessed the same.  Latisha is also an accomplished sports person in the field of martial arts and is advancing further in this discipline and is currently studying law in the University of Galway.  Latisha had been nominated by her mother Susan.

Other worthy winners from County Roscommon for the Community Safety Award were the transition year students from Castlerea Community College, Co. Roscommon for creating a TikTok highlighting the dangers of spiking while out socialising while a Special Recognition Award was also presented to Roscommon Comhairle na nOg for their continued work and awareness on various topics affecting young people in the County.

Gardaí will be distributing nomination forms to schools, youth groups and voluntary organisations right across the counties of Roscommon and Longford via email in the coming weeks.  These forms may also be requested from Roscommon.GardaYouthAwards@garda.ie or may be downloaded on the Garda website and also from the Longford and Roscommon Local Authority websites.

Nomination Forms can be emailed to Roscommon.GardaYouthAwards@garda.ie or can be posted to The Community Policing Unit, Boyle Garda Station, County Roscommon.  All nominations must be received by 5pm on Friday, 21st June 2024