http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/gardai-probe-church-attacks-nationwide

Gardai probe church attacks nationwide
Date:
27 May 2010

Michael Kelly

Gardai¨ have launched a nationwide inquiry and Church leaders have ordered parishes to step up security over fears that a recent spate of arson attacks on churches may be spreading.

It comes as attempts were made to set fire to two churches a short distance apart in the Leinster area.

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has appointed a detective inspector in the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation to lead what is being described as a nationwide investigation into attempted arson and criminal damage to Church property, The Irish Catholic has learned.

Detective Inspector Joseph Crowe, based in Dublin's Harcourt Street Station, is co-ordinating the national Garda response to reports of criminal damage to churches and other parish buildings. Gardai¨ are also stepping up patrols around church premises. Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Dublin has issued a warning to all parishes to ''regard the risk of damage to Church property as very serious''.

Precautions

In a memo from the dioceses chief financial administrator Kieran O'Farrell, parishes are urged to take immediate precautions and convene an urgent meeting ''to identify additional precautions you could take to protect parish property''.

O'Farrell concluded his memo with the advice: ''The watchword is to be vigilant.''

The latest warning comes after attempts to set fire to churches in Athy, Co. Kildare and Ballylinan, Co. Laois.

The doors of St Michael's Church in Athy were destroyed, as were two holy water fonts and a coloured tile fresco of the Last Supper. Meanwhile, just four miles away in Ballylinan, a potentially more serious incident was averted by a vigilant passer-by.

The latest attacks come after a number of previous attempts to damage churches in different parts of the country. A Garda spokesman told The Irish Catholic he did