A councillor in Co Wexford has condemned extensive vandalism at one of the county’s oldest burial grounds as gardaí seek information on the incident which saw gravestones and other features of the cemetery damaged.
Monachán graveyard in Taghmon has served as a burial site for people of both Catholic and Protestant faiths, containing graves dating from the 1700s to the 2000s.
Aontú councillor Jim Codd described the scenes as “horrifying” and has appealed to anyone with information to contact gardaí.
Codd condemned the “perverse” attack which he said left 18 headstones damaged, with some smashed and others pulled from the ground.
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He said the damage caused by the “mind-boggling” vandalism was not done “on a whim” as it likely would have required several people using tools such as sledgehammers for many hours.
“This is not the work of wayward children or mere teenagers,” he said.
This is the second attack on the graveyard in the past decade and has been “terribly upsetting for the local community”, he said.
“The perpetrators and whatever perverse thinking was driving them went about breaking heavy, heavy stones that were hundreds of years old and smashing them up. Ancient crypts were broken. The granite plinths that surrounded ancient graves were pulled out,” he added.
The councillor said a stone cross that had stood for hundreds of years was damaged, while a large iron Celtic cross was “smashed to pieces off a wall”.
He said the wall of the graveyard had also been damaged, with stones pulled from it.
“It’s mind-boggling as to why anybody would go about devastating the graveyard on such a large scale,’ he added.
“All members of our community have the utmost respect for the burial places of their dead. It is hard to imagine anybody in their right mind would do such a thing.”
The graveyard’s caretaker alerted Codd to the damage last week.
In their appeal, gardaí referred to the damage having taken place at some date between April 20th and July 27th.
They have asked for local residents or road users who may have information on the incident to get in touch.
Investigations are continuing.
