€10k in new notes stolen from artist Ballagh’s home

Artist Robert Ballagh has revealed that thieves took around €10,000 in cash from his home just before Christmas.

He said he had been paid for three months’ work and had left the money in a briefcase that was torn open by the robbers.

Ballagh, who lives in Broadstone, Dublin, but was not at home at the time of the robbery, said he was told by gardaí the chances of him getting the money back were slim.

He told RTÉ he did not immediately notice that his home had been broken into when he came home and admitted he had made it easy for the thieves to take the money — brand new notes wrapped in bands.

“The cash was sitting there. They came in, took the money, and left. Nothing was touched really in the house apart from that. It just meant I worked for three months last year for nothing,” he said.

Ballagh had the money in his studio for a couple of weeks and decided it was not safe to leave it there and took it home.

The artist said he was only out of the house for about an hour as he intended going to the funeral of Sean Redmond, the former general secretary of the Connolly Association.

He had misread the death announcement and had gone to Glasnevin Cemetery on Friday, Dec 21, to discover the funeral was not being held until the following Friday.

Ballagh said he decided to do some shopping before returning home and was glad he did because meeting the robbers on his doorstep would have been a far more unpleasant experience.

“When I came back I noticed nothing. I put away the shopping, made a cup of coffee, sat down. I was sitting in the front room and noticed that a plant was damaged and thought I must have knocked it coming in with the shopping.”

Ballagh later discovered that somebody had come in the back window and stood on the plant. His house is alarmed but was not switched on. “I was only going to be out for about an hour and didn’t think it was necessary.”

Ballagh said he was upset since the robbery as he did not feel safe in it any more. “I am now about to embark on putting CCTV because the gardaí told me that is the only effective deterrent,” he said.

Earlier in the John Murray Show, Rosaleen Kelly made a plea for the return of her parents’ ashes, which were stolen from her home in Deerpark Place, Kiltipper, Tallaght in Dublin on New Year’s Eve.

She had spent the day in the Coombe hospital where her daughter had given birth to a girl.

Ms Kelly said she noticed the urn was missing within a few seconds — it had been on top of a television, which was also stolen, as were three other TVs, three DVD players, handbags, jewellery, and two game consoles.

Ms Kelly, a mother of four, described the container as a black box, six inches square, with a glass top and two dolphin emblems on one side.

“They might have took it and mistaken it for a jewellery box,” she said.

Her parents Joe and Rose Curley died five and four years ago, respectively. Most of their ashes had been scattered over cliffs in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, but Ms Kelly and her sisters and brother had each kept a portion in urns in their homes.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact gardaí in Tallaght at 01 6666000 or through the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666111.