Fire crew remove wheelie bin from Fr Mathew statue in Cork city

A wheelie bin was placed on top of Cork city's Fr Mathew statue on Saturday. Picture: The Boys & Girls of Knocka — Facebook

An overnight act of vandalism saw a wheelie bin placed on top of Cork city's Fr Theobold Mathew statue on Patrick Street.

At around 11am, crew from Cork City Fire Brigade used ladders to retrieve the bin, after the incident was photographed and circulated on social media.

The statue was erected in 1841 to honour Theobald Mathew, a Tipperary-born priest who spent many years in Cork where he began his internationally-renowned Total Abstinence Society in 1838, which encouraged people to take the 'pledge' to avoid alcohol.

One of the city's best-known statues, it features in the classic Cork song 'The Boys of Fairhill': “The smell on Patrick's Bridge is wicked, how does Fr Mathew stick it?” 

Fr Mathew was wearing a mask in March 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture: Larry Cummins

Created in bronze by John Henry Foley, who also did the Prince Albert statue for the Albert Memorial in London, the unveiling of the statue in drew an estimated 100,000 people to the city. 

“Not one cross word was heard to be spoken,” amongst the crowds, noted the Cork Examiner at the time, with committals to the Bridewell for drunkenness down to only 22 people, about 30% less than on a normal night.

Ironically, the statue is often subjected to acts of vandalism one can only assume to be alcohol-induced, with traffic cones often spotted atop its head.