Gardai have launched an investigation after a playground in South Dublin was set alight in the middle of night.
This marks the second time this particular park has been set on fire and parents are ‘horrified’ by the news.
At around 11:30 pm on Tuesday, June 27th, Gardai received calls about the fire in Sean Moore Park beside Sandymount Strand.
Although no injuries have been reported at this point, this is the second arson attack on the children’s playground in just four weeks.
Speaking about the repeated incident, Fine Gael councillor James Geoghegan said parents are “horrified” over these “mindless” attacks.
In a statement, he said: “Lots of parents use that playground every day, certainly every weekend, and it’s just horrific,” he said.
“That playground itself cost about €1m to build and when it did come, it was such a great resource for the whole community of Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount.
“To see it vandalised like that is just heartbreaking,” he added.
It’s understood that the vandalism is being carried out by a group of youths who gather there at night – however, this cannot be confirmed without CCTV proof.
There is currently no surveillance in the area, but officials are due to meet and discuss options going forward.
“The idea that young people would go in there and set the thing on fire is really mindless and they need to be caught,” Cllr Geoghegan went on to say.
“It looks like a similar thing happened about a month ago where young kids are gathering there.
“They are either deliberately setting things on fire or they are having a fire in the playground and causing the various playground items to go on fire.
“I’ve been there recently enough with my kids and there are a lot of burn marks on certain parts of the play items. It’s really awful that people are setting fires in playgrounds, it’s just unbelievable.
“It’s now happening on a repeated basis,” the Dublin Bay South councillor said.
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