Locals in a south Dublin coastal town were outraged after senseless vandals destroyed a public bench.
A picnic bench in Dillon's Park in Dalkey was torn down after a gang of hoodlums "jumped up and down" on top of it.
An image of the collapsed bench was shared by the Dalkey Tidy Towns Facebook group promoting fury from the residents at the "disgraceful" incident.
One person said: "So so sad. Our favourite picnic bench. Why, oh, why would they do such a nasty thing?"
Another person said: "That is disgraceful."
However, the story ends on an uplifting note as the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has offered to repair the bench.
A post on Facebook said: "BAD NEWS FOLLOWED BY SOME PROMISING NEWS.
"Look what some vandals did to one of our lovely picnic benches in Dillon's Park! A group thought it would be fun to jump up and down on the top of the bench and collapsed the whole thing.
"The bench was donated by Dalkey Tidy Towns for all to enjoy. Apologies to our visitors who use this for their lunch every day till we resolve this. The Gardai are taking action and we await an update.
"Today, our friends in DLRCC kindly offered to try to repair our picnic bench and it has already been removed. So sad to see this vandalism. If the repairs work, we will upload photos later."
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