Vandals target Tramore SVP premises and slash donated items

The St Vincent de Paul branch in Tramore, Co Waterford, was targeted recently by vandals who in addition to breaking into the organisation's premises also damaged items inside.

In an online post a branch member stated: "This morning, I arrived to work to find the front door glass completely smashed in from the night before, which in itself was bad enough. A very short time later, we noticed that three of our sofas had been slashed and ripped open, presumably when we were open on Saturday."

The member went on to state everyone was "gutted and upset" about what occurred, before highlighting the fact that all furniture in the premises is donated by people from within the local community.

"All our furniture is very kindly donated by people in the community, and through these donations, all the funds we raise are used directly to financially support families and individuals in need in our community," said the member in the post on the organisation's Facebook page.

"I'm posting this to make people aware of the challenges we are dealing with and to reiterate how important our donaters and customers are," the member added.

However, despite the mindless and senseless act of vandalism the organisation said it won't be deterred from continuing to provide a very important service to the community.

"We will overcome them and keep doing our best to help people in need, and our doors will always be open," said the member.

"Thank you from all the team at Vincent's Tramore, and whilst we don't understand these actions, the overwhelming level of goodwill we receive and hopefully give back will always keep us going."

The incident, which occurred on June 17, was reported to the Gardaí and the matter is being investigated.