‘Blooding dogs on the pitch’
Two clubs on the southside of Cork city have this week highlighted the vandalism to their sporting grounds with one club saying that it’s a weekly issue.
St Michael’s GAA club in Blackrock has said that its fencing is vandalised weekly while its goalposts were damaged several weeks ago. Meanwhile, the dugouts at Ringmahon Rangers were damaged in recent weeks with the club estimating that it will cost about €2,000 to replace them.
Fine Gael Cllr Des Cahill told the Cork Independent that the issues at both St Michael’s and Ringmahon Rangers were unacceptable.
Focusing on St Michael’s, he said that this type of vandalism has been going on for years and said there was some harrowing incidents of “blooding dogs on the pitch”.
He gave an example where people came onto the pitch while an under 12s team was training and set their greyhounds on other small dogs and animals in front of them.
He said that the mental fencing around the club is not stopping people from entering the club and has called on Cork City Council to build a wall around the area instead in a bid to stop people from vandalising the gaelic football Ccub.
The local councillor said: “This has been going on for years. It’s causing some dreadful friction in the area. On top of that there’s been incident of blooding dogs on the pitch.”
He said the club incurred costs of about €14,000 to make right some of the vandalism that occurred last year.
In a tweet, St Michael’s said: “We are also having the same issue with vandalism to our fencing almost weekly. Our underage goals were recently completely destroyed in addition to clubhouse damage last year.”
Cllr Cahill continued: “All local clubs are working hard to provide facilities for kids which makes it very disappointing.”
Ringmahon Rangers also took to Twitter this week: “More vandalism caused to our dugouts. The damage caused is going to cost us over €2,000 to repair. People are volunteering every day in the club to make it a better place but when local lads decide to damage our stuff it knocks everyone back.”
Cllr Cahill said these clubs don’t have the economic streams to continue to mend the damage that’s being regularly occurring.
Peter Horgan, a Labour local area representative, said: “The work done by clubs like St Michael's, Blackrock and Ringmahon is beyond compare in the community. It is devastating for the clubs to bear such attacks and costs of vandalism.
“No one wants fortresses built, they want to provide facilities of sport for all. The full weight of the law must be brought against those committing vandalism of property and if those committing these acts are under the legal age then their parents should face consequences on their behalf.”