Beer bottles buried in Cork GAA field in vandalism incident 'designed to cause damage' 

Gardaí are investigating the incident after goalpost netting was damaged and broke glass beer bottles were buried underneath the pitch surface.

Volunteers from the GAA club needed to dig around some of the bottles that were smashed into the ground to get them out of the playing field. Picture: Eoin Keane

Vandals have embedded glass beer bottles into a GAA field in Montenotte, Cork City in what has been described as an incident "designed to cause damage". 

Tank field in the northside of the city has been a regular site of littering and dog fouling but Eoin Keane from Brian Dillon's GAA club said the incident on Tuesday night is "different level stuff". 

"I mean you can imagine the ground was hard and the sun was beating down all day. We were trying to rack our brains how they managed to get the bottles that deep into the ground. 

"That's a fair bit of effort, not just reckless vandalism, it's designed to cause damage," said Mr Keane. 

The club's underage officer and PRO said volunteers in the early hours of Wednesday morning cleared away the litter and discarded bottles as well as digging up 15 buried broken bottles from the pitch. 

Labour Cllr John Maher said money from the ward fund will go towards repairing the goalpost nets and the field but said this is only a small contribution and that the volunteers from the club did the "real work".  

Cllr Maher said the damage is despicable but that a "very frustrating minority" must not be allowed to win when so much community work is taking place.  

He said an increased presence of community gardaí in the area along with parents taking responsibility for their children would go a long way towards solving the issue. 

Mr Keane said the GAA club is looking forward to the resumption of non-contact training for under-18s and is not letting the incident drag them down.  

"It's very disheartening," said Mr Keane, "We try our best to connect with the community. Over the last lockdown, we've had clothes drives and food drives. All the club players have been going around delivering groceries. 

It's just very disheartening but look we'll fix it, repair it and drive on.

Gardaí are investigating after a receipt for the alcohol was discovered nearby. 

CCTV footage from a local supermarket near Tank field is also being examined.