Keena slams 'despicable' graffiti in Athlone graveyard

An Athlone councillor has described the painting of graffiti on headstones in a local graveyard as "a despicable act" and "something that needs to be stopped".

Cllr Frankie Keena spoke about the problem of headstones being damaged by graffiti at the historic Abbey Road graveyard, off Northgate Street, during Monday's meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District.

He pointed out that in recent years the council had been involved in producing an audiobook about the graveyard, entitled 'The Unsilent Stones', but its efforts to renew interest in the ancient site were now being hampered by vandalism.

"The people who are doing this obviously have no respect for the people buried in that graveyard, and it's sad to see," said Cllr Keena.

"The council has a lovely audio tour, and sign, there highlighting the importance of the Abbey Road graveyard and church, but now we have these fools who think it's great fun to spray the headstones with graffiti. It's sad and it needs to be stamped out."

A motion Cllr Keena raised at the meeting called on the council to "address the issue of graffiti damage" to some of the headstones, "and to put appropriate measures in place to prevent this type of vandalism from recurring".

The written response he received from the council management stated that its heritage officer "will schedule a site inspection, following which specific recommendations to alleviate the problem will be identified and implemented".

Cllr Keena said he was somewhat concerned that the response may result in the issue being passed from one section of the local authority to another.

"It's a heritage site and a site of local interest... Can we not just clean up the headstones, and move on that, rather than let it get caught up in bureaucracy?" he asked.

Cllr John Dolan was among those who spoke in support of Cllr Keena's motion, saying Athlone Tidy Towns had done "great work" around the Abbey Road graveyard and that there was absolutely no excuse for the vandalism that had occurred.

He said that, with the tourism season approaching, a clean-up of the graffiti needed to happen as soon as possible: "It wouldn't bode well for how the town presents itself if we have headstones with graffiti on them."

The Mayor of the Athlone/Moate District, Cllr Vinny McCormack supported Cllr Keena's motion and said he hoped the council would work "as quickly as possible" with the heritage officer in order to address the issue.