Kilcurry Parish Priest Fr Vinod Kurian described a very “upsetting” experience when four raiders broke into Kilcurry Parochial House on Saturday evening and confronted him and Fr Oliver Stanfield with hammers and an axe before escaping with the cash contents of the safe.
"I came back from having said Saturday evening mass in Fatima and Fr Oliver having said mass at St Brigid’s Shrine when four men broke into the house.
"I was up in my room when one man came up armed with an axe, another confronted Fr Oliver with a hammer and the other two men were trying to break into the safe with hammers.
“I managed to push him out from getting into my room, I locked the door and opened the window and started shouting for help, but no one heard me. I took out my phone and started to ring the Gardai, but by this time he had broken through the door and told me to give him the phone.“I was taken downstairs to the safe and told to give them the keys, which I did, but they had already damaged the lock to the safe and couldn’t get in. They kept hammering at the safe and got in to take the weekly collection money and some sterling donations from the shrine”.
“Then they sprayed bleach on the two of us and around the office and left.”
The whole ordeal lasted about half an hour and both priests were left uninjured but traumatised by the experience.
"The four men had South Armagh accents and some of my parishioners have said that they saw four men working in the fields earlier that day. It might have been them watching the house”.
"They took my phone and it was found on a crossroads nearby.”
This is not the first time that Fr Vinod has been the victim of such an attack, recalling: “It happened two years ago when three men broke in at 1am in the morning and tried to break into the safe.” On that occasion those raiders were unsuccessful.
Fr Vinod told his parishioners of the raid at Sunday mass and says that they will have to further review their security arrangements with Gardai following this latest raid.
On Monday morning parishioners were assisting with a clean-up following the raid. “Our parishioners and community have been shocked and very supportive since the news broke,” said a grateful Fr Vinod.
Anyone with any information that can assist Gardaí with this investigation is asked to contact Dundalk Garda Station on 042 9388400, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.