The Old Cemetery in Athlumney was targeted by vandals last weekend

A local resident has slammed 'heartless yobs' for desecrating a 300-year-old cemetery in Navan.

The resident who asked not to be named has told of how he was ‘horrified’ to discover graffiti on the gates and on one of the headstones of the Old Cemetery in Athlumney, Navan’s oldest graveyard.

He is calling on Meath County Council to install CCTV a long the road to deter vandals from interfering with the historic cemetery and its surroundings. He said:

“I was down in the cemetery on the Saturday evening at 5pm and there was no graffiti there then and I visited it again on Sunday afternoon and I was shocked to see it on the gates.

“I also noticed that one of the three steps that brings you into the graveyard without opening the gate had been disturbed.

“The cemetery goes back over 300 years and It is the nicest road in Navan because of the antiquity that’s on it and it is now being vandalised by faceless young teenagers who are just bored.

“I’m shocked. These are people who have nothing better to do with themselves.

“This vandalism shows a total disregard for the remains of many local families who are interred here

“The cemetery is very well kept and is a volunteer effort and it is a disgrace that this is happening.

“As well as the vandalism the amount of rubbish I picked up yesterday from around twenty yards either side of the cemetery is just disgusting, dirty senseless people just littering as they go along.

“We really need surveillance cameras up on the road and signs up to say there are surveillance cameras so some of these culprits can be asked to face up to their actions.”

Fianna Fail councillor for Navan and funeral director Padraig Fitzsimons says it is ‘a slap in the face’ to those who have worked tirelessly to keep the historic cemetery looking its best.

“It’s terrible to think that the oldest graveyard in Navan that they have done unbelievable work as regards the upkeep of is being targeted by vandals.

“As a young lad I recall it being completely overgrown and the committee there has such amazing work to restore it over the years.

“It’s very demoralising for the committee there that puts so much into it and this is the time of the year they can upgrade it and keep it well and the time of year that it should be looking well for it to happen is just deplorable.

“It’s just mindless thuggery and I’m really disappointed. As a funeral director, there is a great sense of history about it. It’s a real part of old Navan and to see something like that happen makes me sick.”