‘Mindless destruction’ by vandals at Monivea Woods

Monivea Woods has once again fallen victim to “mindless destruction” by vandals who targeted signage in the amenity on Easter Sunday.

Local Councillor Albert Dolan said the damage, which is believed to have been carried out sometime on Sunday afternoon, was hugely disheartening to community activists who were doing trojan work to promote the woods.

Calling for CCTV to be installed, Cllr Dolan said this followed an attack on the wood’s 19th Century mausoleum in 2020 in which stained-glass windows were smashed and some of the historic contents were destroyed.

“Gardaí were down at the woods on Monday morning. Some of the way-marker signage has been broken in half and damaged. We had information signs up and it appears that they were pulled up out of the ground and used to smash the other signage,” said the Fianna Fáil councillor who is also a member of Monivea Community Council.

“There is also visible evidence that there was an attempt to access the mausoleum. Just over two years ago, it was broken into and huge damage was caused.

“The stained-glass windows have since been restored by the Monivea Heritage Association and luckily, they didn’t gain access this time,” continued Cllr Dolan.

The Heritage Association and Community Council were striving to promote and protect the woods and mausoleum, he said, and it was dispiriting that vandals would seek to destroy that.