Damage caused to St Pat’s pitch by vandals
ST PATRICK’S GAA Club has handed over CCTV footage to gardaí after the club’s main pitch was vandalised.
A section of the astro-turf square by the goalmouths was slashed with some form of blade, while another section was completely cut away during the past week.
Gardaí are examining CCTV footage from the club in an effort to track down the culprit or culprits.
Some security cameras at the Wicklow town grounds have also been reset so they now look out over the pitch.
ST PATRICK’S GAA Club has handed over CCTV footage to gardaí after their main pitch was vandalised last week.
Some form of blade seems to have been used to slash a section of an astro-turf square by one of the goalmouths while another section was completely cut away. The small astro-turf squares were fitted at each goal around five years ago at a cost of €13,000 and are meant to have a time-life of between 20 and 25 years. Shock mats underneath the astro-turf were also damaged in the incident.
Eddie Leonard, PRO at the Wicklow town club, has expressed his disgust at the damage to the pitch.
‘Everyone associated with the club is very disappointed. The pitch is for our members to play on and this act of vandalism is just completely mindless. It looks to me like a Stanley knife was used. It’s completely irresponsible and anti-social behaviour and it will cost the club
to pay for the damage,’ he said.
Gardaí are examining CCTV footage from the club and it is believed that the damage was caused on either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. Some security cameras have also been reset so they now look out over the pitch.
‘A lot of people have been using
the pitch when there aren’t any club activities taking place. We can’t police that but we can ask people to please not damage our pitch,’ said Mr Leonard. ‘We spend a lot of time and money in keeping our facilities in good order for all our members and the community, only for a mindless few to ruin it for everyone.’