‘Mindless’ vandals attacking community

‘Mindless’ vandalism slammed


Thousands of euro worth of damage done in Westport incidents

Edwin McGreal and
Neill O’Neill


TWO acts of vandalism in Westport in recent days have both been described as ‘an attack on the community’ and people of the town have been asked to be vigilant in assisting the Gardaí to stop such acts in the future.
Westport Fire Station was subjected to criminal damage at the weekend while soccer equipment belonging to Westport United located at Rice College was damaged on bonfire night (last Tuesday).
Rocks were thrown through windows and glass panel doors at Westport’s new Fire Station on the Leenane Road, causing damage in the region of €3,000 and Station Officer Ger Geraghty was dismayed by the attack.
“It is the height of vandalism,” he told The Mayo News yesterday. “It is an attack on the community and God help the people that did this, that is all I can say. I’m 38 years in the fire service and in that time I’ve served in four different stations and none of them ever received as much as a scrape in my time.”
The incident occurred between 7pm on Saturday evening and 10.30am on Sunday morning when Ger Geraghty called in to check on things. He is greatly aggrieved that such damage would be directed at the hugely important emergency service.
”It is sickening. I was disgusted when I came on it on Sunday morning. It was so mindless to do something like this to a fire station. Maybe the people that did this will need our assistance before the week is out but they don’t think that way.”
Gardaí are also investigating another incident after several thousands euros worth of damage was caused to equipment owned by Westport United FC on bonfire night.
Mobile goals used for five a side matches were destroyed and Westport United official Frank Gillivan described to The Mayo News the damage caused by the vandalism.
“This was a pointless act of thuggery which will have serious consequences for the recreation and sporting enjoyment of children from right across the community in Westport and all its surrounding areas,” he said. “There was no reason for this to be done, it is just senseless vandalism in the extreme and an attack on the entire community of Westport, as hundreds of children relied on these goals for training and matches every week.
”We have volunteers who give their time willingly every week and then they get this thrown back in their face by vandals who are clearly mindless.”
Inspector Joe McKenna at Westport Garda Station said that while they were not following a clear line of inquiry, they would be conducting house to house investigations in the areas in question and asked the people of Westport to be vigilant to such attacks, something, he said, can normally be relied on from locals.
“There is a very good civic spirit in the town, people don’t like to see their town vandalised, they’re proud of Westport. In that regard if anyone sees anything untoward, we’d ask them to let us know. The new fire station is a lovely new building and what happened is a very sad act and anyone who has any information in relation to the incidents are asked to contact us on 098-25555.”