Cork Mayor 'sick to death' of arson attacks on buildings as historic Ballincollig mill gutted by fire

Gardaí are investigating after the structure, located in the Ballincollig regional park, was found ablaze overnight

Arson damage in Ballincollig regional park on Friday night.

Heritage campaigners say their hearts are broken after a historic mill was gutted in a suspected arson attack.

Gardaí have launched an investigation after the old mill structure in the regional park in Ballincollig, on the outskirts of Cork city, was gutted in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

Crime-scene investigators were on site early on Saturday, examining the site for evidence. 

It is the second suspected arson attack in the park in recent months.

Arson damage in Ballincollig regional park on Friday night.

Lord Mayor Cllr Colm Kelleher, who represents the town, said will plans to raise the matter with senior gardaí before Monday’s meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee.

“It’s is clear now that this is a serious spate of arson in the town," he said. 

"They are progressing from benches to buildings and it has to be tackled.

“I am sick to death of waking up on almost monthly basis and watching parts of our town and village being destroyed by gurriers.

“My ward councillors and I have called for CCTV cameras to be installed in the park. There will be a substantial cost but we need to put a stop to this”.

Last year, several of the park's benches and picnic tables were torched in what was described then as “an act of skullduggery” and as an attack on the community.

An empty bench space, where one of the 15 benches in Ballincollig Regional Park was set alight and destroyed last year. File Picture.

Mr Kelleher branded this latest incident as an attack on our history and heritage.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful. I’m just lost for words really,” he said.

Gardaí confirmed that members of Cork City Fire Brigade responded to reports of a fire in the early hours of this morning in the park which is home to Ireland’s largest industrial archaeological complex, with several buildings and ruins associated with its former use as a gunpowder mills.

Firefighters found an old incorporating mill structure ablaze and managed to bring the fire under control quickly.

The mill wheel at the gunpowder mills in Ballincollig, before it was damaged in a suspected arson attack.

At peak production, the gunpowder mills had 24 such mills to produce crude gunpowder.

The building torched on Saturday is a modern reconstruction built in 1993.

It features in an immersive Powdermills app which won a Digital Tourism award at the Digital Town Awards recently.

The team behind the app said their hearts are broken after the fire.

“This building was a beautiful reconstruction of an original mill building, commissioned by Cork County Council in 1992 and opened to the public in 1993,” they said.

Months of tireless work by skilled craftspeople and a decade of planning — all burned down in a matter of minutes.

“This blaze was set in a building located right beside private residential buildings, a care home for the elderly and a secondary school.

“If the temperatures here had been anything like mainland Europe is seeing right now, the canopy of trees would have easily set alight and spread the flames to these surrounding buildings.

“Yes, history was destroyed. Yes, years of work was destroyed. Yes, unimaginable damage was done. But when will these people stop?

“Do we have to witness a terrible tragedy before corrective action is taken?”