{"id":587100,"date":"2026-08-08T14:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/587100\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:56:08","slug":"youths-cause-serious-damage-to-cork-city-playground-as-fire-brigade-called-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/587100\/","title":{"rendered":"Youths cause serious damage to Cork City playground as Fire Brigade called out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Locals said they saw kids dragging bins into the play area<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0_mahonplaygroundfire.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"CCFB responds to a fire at Loughmahon Park playground\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">CCFB responds to a fire at Loughmahon Park playground(Image: Blackrock\/Mahon Community News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Cork city does not have an oversupply of safe, well-equipped playgrounds and amenities to keep kids (and parents) occupied during these long summer days &#8211; and those that it does have are facing constant acts of vandalism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">In July, we reported on how a <a aria-label=\"new playground just opened in Carrigaline had been hit by vandalismLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corkbeo.ie\/incoming\/anger-refurbed-carrigaline-playground-already-34350651\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">new playground just opened in Carrigaline had been hit by vandalism<\/a>. The park in <a aria-label=\"CarrigalineLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corkbeo.ie\/all-about\/carrigaline\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Carrigaline<\/a> &#8211; affectionately nicknamed &#8216;Pringle Park,&#8217; after the curved yellow toppers on some of the playground equipment &#8211; was opened to the public on July 17 <a aria-label=\"after a major \u20ac300,000 refurbishmentLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corkbeo.ie\/incoming\/carrigaline-gets-new-300000-playground-34307752\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">after a major \u20ac300,000 refurbishment<\/a>. The six-figure upgrade was partially funded by private sponsorships and grants, and underpinned by a huge local community effort. Within days of opening, it was vandalised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Now another city playground has been badly damaged. Last night, a gang of youths were seen dragging refuse bins into the playground at Loughmahon Park in Mahon and setting them alight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Pictures shared to the popular<a aria-label=\" Blackrock\/Mahon Community News Facebook pageLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/703928970012295\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\"> Blackrock\/Mahon Community News Facebook page<\/a> showed a unit of Cork City Fire Brigade responding to the blaze, after locals raised the alarm at around 8.30pm last night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">One local who contacted CorkBeo at news@corkbeo.ie, asking us to highlight the incident, said; &#8216;There was a gang of boys and girls, young teens, they climbed into a fenced off area where there&#8217;s some council bins and dragged a load of rubbish out to the playground and set fire to it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I saw one or two men tell them off but they didn&#8217;t care. It&#8217;s disgusting, that&#8217;s one of the few places the kids can play safely around here. You&#8217;d ask what their parents were doing but you can only imagine what kind of homes they are being reared in, that&#8217;s where they learn it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Clean-up operations are expected to continue today at the playground, but locals have told CorkBeo that there appear to be &#8216;zero consequences&#8221; for the youths &#8211; and their families &#8211; as constant antisocial behaviour is plaguing the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Locals said they saw kids dragging bins into the play area CCFB responds to a fire at Loughmahon&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14641,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-587100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-city","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}