Volunteers resurrect Carrauntoohil cross
A CREW of more than 30 volun- teers have resurrected the fivemetre metal cross on top of Carrauntoohil after it was cut down by vandals last Friday.
At 5.30am yesterday a group led by locals Mike O’Shea and Piaras Kelly began their climb to reinstate the monument, which has been there since 1976.
There had been objections from Atheist Ireland and environmental groups to the cross being re-erected, but Mr Kelly said: ‘It is part of the community and heritage of the mountain. Whether it is a piece of steel to somebody or a cross it should stay as it is.’
To protect it, the South Kerry Community Development Forum said it may be necessary to place motion sensor cameras at the 1,038-metre summit.
Patrica Deane, rural recreation officer with the forum, said: ‘We’re talking extremely small cameras here. If someone or something walks by, they can record that. There’s a lot of concern around here that this could happen again.’
Superintendent Flor Murphy of Killarney Garda Station said that whoever toppled the steel cross had to drag an angle grinder up the mountain, which takes around four hours to climb.
TD Brendan Griffin welcomed the decision to resurrect the cross but was not sure that cameras would protect it. ‘I don’t know if that’s necessary, I mean someone could have a balaclava on them. Or if it was dark, you wouldn’t be able to see them at all.’