Closed-circuit television is being installed in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow because of increasing incidences of vandalism. The diocese of Kildare and Leighlin has announced that extra security equipment is being erected in the coming weeks both inside and outside the cathedral.
Ten security cameras filming up to 40 hours of footage will be installed both inside and outside the cathedral and an alarm system will be upgraded.
Church authorities have been forced to install wall safes at the shrines rather than allowing collection boxes to be part of the shrine itself.
Thieves have even brought hammers and other implements into the building to hack open money boxes at shrines.
In the past month three shrines were wrecked beyond repair by intruders trying to steal candle donations. Parish manager Bernard Geraghty said it was “unfortunately the case” that additional security equipment was needed. “We’ve had a huge amount of vandalism - it is dreadful and we are very upset by this” he said.
“It has come to the point where a lot of churches have had to close but we don’t want to consider that” he explained. “A lot of people still visit the Cathedral and value the chance to say a prayer or light a candle”.
Mr Geraghty said in the most recent serious incident, a car was burnt out at the back of the Cathedral destroying the tarmacadam in the car park.
“Unfortunately we had no camera there so that’s another area where a camera has to be installed.”
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(Source: CIN)