The Clare and District Soccer League (CDSL) has said it’s fighting a losing battle against mindless vandalism at the county grounds.
At the end of the summer of 2022, on a number of occasions, CDSL volunteers noticed damage by way of holes in the fencing and evidence of people intruding around Frank Healy Park on the Quin Road. A door into a storage area of the dressing rooms was broken in; however, nothing appeared to have been taken, as there really isn’t anything there to take.
The committee, at this time, invested in a Camera system in an effort to deter this unwanted activity.
In September, October and November the mail box on the exterior of the gate was vandalised and numerous important documents went missing pertaining to the planning application for the new suite of dressing rooms and to government grant applications. This caused delays in proceeding with a number of projects.
In April the Committee decided to replace all of the locks on the buildings in Frank Healy Park as the cameras were picking up images of what appeared to be youngsters, possibly teenagers, inside the grounds and around the building. In May the cameras, not yet a year in place, were vandalised and ripped down.
CDSL grants and compliance officer Richard Cahill said: “Finally this morning the Home dressing room door was discovered to have been broken in. This is simply mindless vandalism as nothing of any significant value is kept in these buildings. They are dressing rooms and a small kitchen, noting more. There aren’t even biscuits stored on site.
The costs associated with this vandalism is amounting to thousands of Euros at this stage. It looks likely that anti vandal shutters may have to be invested in just to stop idiots breaking teak doors for their amusement.
CDSL is a voluntary body catering for more than 1,000 adult grade players. Frank Healy Park is the Clare County Grounds which caters for up to 6,000 people of all ages playing soccer. The executive of CDSL is flat out trying to do all it needs to do without having to deal with this kind of stupidity,” Mr Cahill said.