Almost seventy knives seized by local Gardai last year

The number of knives seized locally over the last two years has almost doubled.

Figures show 161 knives were seized in the three local Garda Divisions in 2019, almost twice that of the figure in 2017.

The Roscommon-Longford Division had the most knives seized locally last year at 69.

It's followed by Cavan-Monaghan with 53 and Sligo-Leitrim at 39.

109 knives were seized in the Shannonside Northern Sound region in 2018, 38 in Roscommon-Longford, 29 in Cavan-Monaghan and 42 in Sligo-Leitrim.

The latter is the only local division to see a decrease in the number of seizures since 2017, with 43 seized that year.

22 were seized in Roscommon-Longford in 2017, with another 21 in Cavan-Monaghan.