Our Night at the Garda Station 23 April 2010

When Elder Driscoll (missionary in Dundalk) was ready to enter the MTC 16 months ago he had not yet received his Visa for the UK (United Kingdom) thus he entered the Provo MTC instead of the one in England. (All of our missionaries for Ireland go there except the senior missionaries.) When he arrived in Ireland at the Dublin Airport, immigration stamped his passport saying he was to get registered with the Garda (police) in the Republic of Ireland (South) within 30 days. He was sent directly from the Mission Home to Northern Ireland (UK) for his first area and didn't need to get it stamped or be registered at a police station up there since his UK Visa was all that was required. He spent one year in Northern Ireland.

Three months ago he was moved from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland and to the city of Cork and he forgot about registering for about a month. He went to the Garda Station to get registered and pay the fee of 150 Euros, which is about $210.00. The female officer on duty was not happy with him for not registering before going up to Northern Ireland in the first place and it made it even worse that he had been in Cork a month and had not come in to register. She said, "the Church has been doing it wrong and not following procedure for a LONG time and she wanted him to leave the country and come back in through a 'port of entry'." Meaning the Dublin airport or seaport and then get the passport stamped all over again and register correctly. He was advised by the mission office to go to the city of Limerick to see if that Garda station would register him. The people there were just as upset or worse at him when he asked because they saw the 'notation' on the computer from the Cork officer and said, "What makes you think we will give you a Garda card when Cork wouldn't?" Well, they didn't do it so for two months he has been worried that he would do something to draw attention to himself and get deported. He is a big guy, 22 years old, 6'5" and about 240 lb, But just as gentle as a teddy bear and easy going and so gentle. His home is Aberdeen, Idaho. It has really been a mess for him.

He was transferred up here to Dundalk...and we feel Heavenly Father had a hand in this as we know he knew we might be able to work it out with the officer who helped us get registered. Our mission president asked us to assist the elder and so we went to see Officer Comisky to talk with him, explain the situation and get his recommendation. He immediately recognized us and asked me, "do you have fingerprints yet?" (Mine evidently have been burned off with perm solution years ago.) He smiled, shook our hands and invited us into his office. We told him the whole story of Elder Driscoll and he clicked into the computer and looked up his name and saw what the officer in Cork had entered and he said, "she has locked him out," meaning he could NOT get registered anywhere in the Republic of Ireland. We assured him that the missionaries haven't caused problems and we were positive they could take a chance on Elder Driscoll. Officer Comisky asked that the elder bring a letter of "assignment to Dundalk" stating his address, companion's name and how long he would be in the Republic of Ireland; and of course the registration fee and his passport.

We took Elder Driscoll and his companion to the Garda(Immigration)Office at the appointed time we were given, and when we arrived we found out that EVERYONE who needs immigration assistance comes at the same time and wait in line forever. There were about 30 people ahead of us. Officer Comisky saw us and said to come back about 9pm as it was going to take quite a while to process everyone and he was sure we had other things to do. So we came back at 9:00 and then still had to wait until about 10:15 to get into the office. We were the last one's to go in. The Officer talked with the elder and went over everything with him and "unlocked" the notation in the computer by entering some statements saying the elder was regretful for what he had done....etc. It was odd really, because it was like going through the motions of something you had no control over. He finally was finished and was fingerprinted. Office Comisky even showed the two elders how bad my fingerprints are by putting one of my fingers on the machine...it was bad, just a mess of lines and wrinkles but no legible prints; very weird. We took the elders home and arrived home about 11:30pm.

I really do feel we worked with Officer Comisky in December and built a rapport with him for the reason of being able to help this elder. It really was amazing because the officer didn't have to do what he did. He could have easily said, NO you need to abide by the law and leave the country and come back the right way. But he helped instead. He had a good heart and we are grateful. To top it all off...they don't take CASH at the station but Officer Comisky actually took Elder Driscoll's cash and some from Elder mcDowell to make up the difference and then took his OWN credit card out and used it in the machine, gave him a paid receipt and put the cash in his own wallet. (He said it saved him from having to go to the bank to get money for his rugby game in England that weekend.) Now he didn't have to do that...by all rights he should have sent the elder home and said come back another time and bring a card. He was so kind to us all. It was a blessing from our Heavenly Father.

SIDE NOTE:
In our conversation with Officer Comisky the week before we took Elder Driscoll to see him, we also told him about the Ireland Mission consolidating in July with Scotland and asked what his recommendations would be for missionaries coming from the mission home in Edinburgh? He told us what would need to be done and how, and we then typed up all the notes and took them to President Creer in Dublin the next week at District Meeting. He said the information was very timely with the change coming in the mission, as all of this needs to be worked out between missions before July 1st. He thanked us for our help.

Since we are serving in a foreign country it is so important that we abide by the laws of the land and respect the authority here. It is good to have these things worked out before someone was deported. We are very thankful for our blessings.

(I have found out since this experience that Elder Driscoll's grandmother went to the same high school as me and we knew each other. She was ahead of me by two years. What another example of "it is a small world" in the Church.