LAST UPDATE | 22 Apr 2024

SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY Council has said that gardaí have begun investigating “a deliberate act of vandalism” after about 40 trees were cut down in Dodder Valley Park in Firhouse. 

The incident happened during the night on Friday last week when young cherry blossom trees along a path in the park were cut in half while a number of saplings were kicked up from the ground.

Locals believe an electric saw was used and the council has now said that gardaí have been informed. 

“South Dublin County Council wishes to express our extreme disappointment and sadness at the deliberate act of vandalism which resulted in the illegal cutting down of a number of trees within Dodder Valley Park. The Council has evaluated the scale of the damage, and the incident is under investigation byAn Garda Síochána,” SDCC said in a post on social media. 

We urge members of the public to come forward with any information they may have regarding this incident and to report such information to the Gardaí. Please share with any community groups to hopefully assist with the investigation.

Mayor of South Dublin County Council and independent councillor Alan Edge has said the incident at the “well regarded and well respected park” has left the local community and other park users devastated.

He told RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland this morning that the incident looks to have happened during the night on Friday and “must’ve taken whoever did it quite some time to actually get through so many trees”.

Edge said: “Have a look at the cut marks and you can see it’s another manual saw or an electric saw. So someone has presumably charged up their electric saw and has gone to the park in darkness and spend some considerable time taking down these trees.”

Alan Edge, mayor of South Dublin County Council, believes the trees were cut with an electric saw as an act of vandalism. Knocklyon Network Knocklyon Network

The local councillor said there are two distinct areas where the trees have been cut down but that a recent audit of CCTV cameras of local authorities ruled that cameras that were near the area or areas had to be removed.

“It’s always bizarre that somebody would go to such lengths to [carry out] a targeted act of vandalism,” Edge told the programme.

Images shared on social media by the Knocklyon Network appear to show dozens of trees which have been cut down in the south Dublin park as well as saplings which have been removed from the ground.

The local community woke on Saturday morning to find that dozens of trees had been supposedly purposely cut down overnight. Knocklyon Network Knocklyon Network

The original post reads that the owner of the page was “sickened” when they came across the incident on Saturday morning.

“It looks like an act of vandalism as I can’t figure out for the life of me why someone would do this, and just push them over, it’s a very sad sight,” they said.

Edge said that there has been significant investment put into the park by the council, the public realm staff and the local community who, in partnership, have planted up to 8,000 trees in Dodder Valley Park alone.

South Dublin County Council South Dublin County Council

“Everybody is just left reeling, really,” Edge added. “[The community is] really devastated and disappointed and kind of bewildered.”

Local Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart commented underneath the Knocklyon Network post that he was to follow up this matter with the local council.

“It’s beyond words – deliberate and malicious; wanton and criminal,” he said.

- With reporting by Rónán Duffy