Calls to protect Sunbeam wreck against bounty hunters

The National Monuments Service is moving to protect a shipwreck which had been buried for a century from bounty hunters.

People have already begun to steal pieces of the wooden skeleton of the schooner, Sunbeam, which has been a feature on Rossbeigh Beach, Co Kerry, for 111 years.

Shipwrecks over 100 years old are protected under the National Monuments Act and cannot be interfered with except under licence.