Thieves sprout up at convent

Brussels sprouts don’t suit everyone’s palate but they’ve left a particularly bad taste with a community of nuns who had their field of greens raided by robbers during the night.

Thieves took about four large sackfuls of the festive vegetable after stripping them from stalks covering about an eighth of an acre at the Dominican Sisters farm at Ballyguile on the edge of Wicklow town.

Sr Julie Newman, who runs the farm, said the theft of the produce was a big blow to staff.