“If you get it wrong, you’re going to live with it for the 12 months after that.”
As our national holiday and a massive social event, Paddy’s Day is a day that millions of Irish people look forward to every year, but it’s also one of the busiest and most eventful days of the year for members of An Garda Síochána.
On a day when many of us are happy to have a drink or three, instances of anti-social behaviour are often more common than at other times of the year and vigilance has to be particularly high in Dublin, when half a million people, including 100,000 overseas visitors, take to the streets of the capital to celebrate.
The Gardaí: Policing Paddy’s, a brand new, behind the scenes, access all areas TV3 documentary, follows the Gardaí as they make their preparations for Paddy’s Day in their bid to lessen the number of public order disturbances that have taken place in previous years.
The documentary examines the challenges presented by policing national holidays in Europe in 2017 and the amount of planning that goes into preparations for Paddy’s Day, which start on March 18 the previous year.
With exclusive footage of base camp where CCTV footage is closely watched from every street corner, the documentary follows the experiences and personalities in the front line on one of the most challenging days of the year.
The Gardaí: Policing Paddy’s airs on TV3 on Wednesday, May 3 at 10pm.
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