Gardaí probe blaze at newly-furbished station

GARDAÍ are investigating a fire at a newly-refurbished garda station.

The public office at Carrickbyrne Adamstown garda station in County Wexford was extensively damaged late on Sunday night.

The fire is thought to have begun between 11.30pm and 1.30am and the scene was technically examined yesterday evening.

The garda station is located on the main New Ross to Wexford road, about 10 miles from Wexford town.

It is the second incident at the newly-refurbished station. It was also vandalised seven weeks ago when most of the windows were broken.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Southend United’s playing grounds in Waterford city were extensively damaged by thugs who used a stolen tractor to cause thousands of euro worth of damage.

A group of youths broke into the grounds at Kilbarry, crashing through a barrier fence. They then drove across the playing pitch and crashed the stolen vehicle into the club’s changing rooms.

The pitch has been torn up and a brick wall at the back of the changing rooms was destroyed.

Gardaí are investigating reports that the thugs were cheered on by a group of other youths as they blazed their trail of destruction from around 8.30pm.

Local councillor Tom Murphy said he was disgusted that someone would carry out such a mindless attack on such invaluable playing grounds, which are a great community asset.

“I was up there this morning and my heart goes out to all of the club officials who have brought this playing pitch up to such a high standard. The lads involved with the club put a lot of time and effort into it.

“I’m calling on anyone who saw who did this to come forward and report it to the gardaí.

“We can’t tolerate this sort of activity anymore. We have to put our foot down. This happened in daylight. Surely someone saw someone doing this damage,” said Mr Murphy.