Outdoor crib and donation box in County Limerick town targeted for second time

AN outdoor crib in a County Limerick town has been vandalised for the second time in a week. 

The crib at Churchtown, Newcastle West, was robbed on Wednesday, January 3, when the protective gate was partially forced back and approximately €200 worth of donations were stolen. 

This Wednesday night, there was another attempt to rob the donation box, further damaging the outer gate of crib and physically removing an inner railing and the attached donation box.

The railing was found, discarded, at the back entrance of the adjoining St David’s graveyard this Thursday morning. 

Residents from the area believe that the culprits also attempted to break into the collection set into the altar of the adjoining grotto. 

“It is very very disappointing,” one local resident told the Limerick Leader.

“The Residents Association puts up this crib and it has been here every Christmas for about 30 years. We usually leave it up for a while after Christmas." 

The crib is set up each year in a small stone structure, on the street close to the grotto and St David’s graveyard and just a stone’s throw from the Churchtown entrance to the Demesne.

To protect it, a wrought-iron, open patterned gate is locked across the front of the tiny building and inside that again is a low rail with the donation box attached. 

To get access to the money box, the vandals had to force the bottom half of the gate outwards and also tried to push open the gate, breaking some of the bars.

Two statues, of the Wise Men, were chipped where the vandals removed the inner rail. 

This Thursday morning, a local resident arrived to board up the crib.