Boy racer vandals leave GAA club with €10,000 bill

A SENIOR GAA club says that acts of vandalism have left them with a bill of €10,000.

Members of the Ballincollig GAA club are pointing the finger of blame at “boy racer” enthusiasts.

The Muskerry division side said a newly completed training pitch was destroyed. Vandals reportedly broke into the club last week and dismantled security fencing before driving a vehicle across the new pitch.

A club spokesman said the estimated cost of damage was around €10,000. Club secretary Michael O’Mahony said: “We’re angry about it. The club is there for the benefit of young people, primarily, and others in the community. It was just a stupid prank. But we’ve reported it to the gardaí.”

“We had only completed our redevelopment 10 days ago. We spent a quarter of a million euro on the redevelopment and the vast majority of the funding was raised by the club members.

“The vandals did handbrake turns on the pitch and completely ruined it. We had two inches of sand on it and when you skid on that you go down to the base of the pitch,” said Mr O’Mahony.

The club had erected security fencing around the pitch but this was taken down. They have now added extra security.

“We had to get the contractor back to redo the whole pitch — it was re-levelled and re-seeded on Friday. This won’t set us back but we have to close the car park at night, which will inconvenience local people who would park their cars there and go for a walk,” said Mr O’Mahony.