THE Fermanagh Herald caught up with PSNI Chief Inspector Roy Robinson on the week he retired from policing after 42 and a half years.
In a long and distinguished career, Roy has witnessed changes in policing work, the police force and local society as a whole.
The most affable man in policing has also navigated these changes while managing his own personal challenges including three cancer diagnoses, a heart attack and a quadruple heart bypass.
He also survived three motorbike accidents as a teenager and, in 1979, the young RUC officer narrowly avoided death when he unwittingly shook a car ferom side to side that contained a 250-300 lb bomb inside it!
Roy attended the aftermaths of both the Omagh and Enniskillen bombs but says his greatest pleasure as a policeman was in community policing.
Describing himself as a “cat with nine lives”, Chief Inspector Robinson attributes his full and successful career and triumph over many health and safety challenges to the “grace of God”.
“We had no running water or electric when I was born at Wheathill, Derrygonnelly,” Roy said, “God has been good to me.”
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