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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Award winners and recipients at the 2019 Laois Offaly Garda Youth Awards in the Killeshin Hotel Portlaoise.
Portlaoise is set to host the first ever Garda National Youth Awards.
Scheduled to take place in late April, the awards will recognise over 100 young people from across the country who the gardaí say have made their communities better places to live.
The Awards were announced today by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and former Garda Divisional Youth Award winner and leading amateur boxer Christina Desmond. Christina is also a newly attested Garda based in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
"The inaugural Garda National Youth Awards will be a showcase for the positive contribution young people are making in their communities," said Commissioner Harris.
"The awards at national and divisional level are a great way for Gardaí to develop strong relationships with community groups and young people in their area.”
Christina Desmond won a divisional youth award in West Cork in 2013.
"It was great to receive such recognition at a young age. I had always wanted to be a Garda, but after seeing my local community Gardaí in action at the youth awards, I definitely knew it was for me. The youth awards enable Gardaí to engage with young people, their families and the local community in such a positive way,” she said.
The National Awards winners will be selected from the winners of the Divisional Garda Youth Awards. This year, 20 Garda Divisions held awards, which is the largest number ever.
The National Awards, to be awarded at a ceremony in the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise on 27 April 2019, will cover the following categories:
Individual Award - Making a positive contribution to their community, making it a better place to live.
Group Award - Group of two or more, 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.
Divisional Garda Youth Awards have proven successful in increasing positive engagement between An Garda Síochána and young people.
Qualifying candidates for the National Awards in certain categories of Divisional Garda Youth Awards will be eligible for nomination by each Division. The Divisional Garda Youth Awards are open to young people aged between 13 and 21 years.
About 500 people are expected to attend the gala event.
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