Grenade found on sports field

GARDAÍ said last night it was a miracle that children didn’t start playing with a live grenade which was found on a sports field.

It is believed that heavy rain washed the World War II grenade out of an earth embankment onto a sports field at Churchfield, Cork.

Superintendent Con Cadogan said it was very fortunate that a retired member of the Defence Forces, rather than a youngster, had spotted the grenade at the Sam Allen Sports Complex.

“He happened to be passing and noticed there was no pin in it.

“He called us in immediately and we contacted the army bomb squad,” said Supt Cadogan.

Army spokesman Commandant Gerry O’Leary said that a bomb disposal unit was immediately dispatched from Collins Barracks to the scene.

They arrived at the Sam Allen Sports Complex shortly after 9pm on Thursday.

“The grenade was old and very decayed. It was hard to tell what type it was, but our experts believe it was a Mills grenade and it was probably manufactured around the end of World War II,” said Commandant O’Leary.

Bomb disposal experts considered the grenade so dangerous that they decided they wouldn’t move it from the spot.

“They dug a culvert around it and blew it up in situ.

“Our bomb disposal experts considered it to be a very viable grenade, and thus quite dangerous,” said the senior army officer.

Supt Cadogan said that gardaí thoroughly searched the immediate area in case there were more grenades, but didn’t find any.

Gardaí don’t believe there was anything sinister in the discovery.

The superintendent said that the heavy rain of recent days probably dislodged the grenade from the soil.

It is almost impossible to say how the grenade got there.

A lot of topsoil was brought into the area when the pitches were being developed.

The Sam Allen Sports Complex was named after a late Lord Mayor of Cork and the complex was officially opened by his nephew, Deputy Bernard Allen, in 1998.