Gardaí launch investigation into destroyed Limerick house

0:00News talk breakfast with Anton Savage in association with air. David Raleigh reporter in the Midwest, you've been out to this house Dave. What does it look like? Well, it's the most giant in the spring to mind and you might have read it in my coffee and the newspapers. You know, I went down there yesterday. I know it's coming up to Halloween, but it looks like someone set up a haunted house. In college court because this house is absolutely destroyed. The windows and the upstairs and the downstairs all smashed out. The window frames hanging off and later on then some workmen came along to board up that house. So that house is now boarded up. It looks like a dilapidated property. As I say, completely destroyed and before this vandalism occurred last Wednesday morning, I wanted to lock in the morning, this house had been purchased recently for half a million

1:03euro. So it was in turn key condition before this vandalism occurred. And the fact that this was videotape. So if this was just a house that looked like it had been through a rough time, we wouldn't know much about this. But the fellas who did this and it is fellas who did this videotape themselves and pushed off online. So we know exactly what happened inside there. Yeah, it seems to be that the trend now social media seems to produce this type of scenario where young people, students, young adults, we've seen all sorts of activities, filmed on mobile phones and put online. One wonders why they do it at all. Videos of student age, young adults carrying out criminal damage at a house. These videos were shared on social media and the videos, Jonathan, you've seen them no doubt are quite bizarre. They show groups of young adults breaking down walls and ceilings in this house, jumping from a roof onto mattresses that have been thrown in the garden.

2:07It shows two young adults laughing and being controlled as they're being filmed, throwing a shelving unit through windows at the house. There's a film throwing really bins at glass doors in the house and other videos appear to show students removing fridges and other items from the property. And as I say, this house recently sold with a guide price of almost half a million euro. It was a refurbished, vacant dwelling and it has been left completely destroyed inside. Now look, we're making the assumption here that they're students. They're definitely young people. But as much as we care for, we don't know who they were, but this is a student area, though, isn't it? It is. The house is located very close to University Lemurick. It's situated in the heart of the University's off campus accommodation community. Okay, so it is suspected that these young adults and the videos and maybe US students, whoever the university itself has come out and said it has yet to confirm the identities

3:08of the people who feature in these videos. They're very identifiable, Jonathan. I was going to say that's not going to last too long, David, because they, you know, please film me as a committed stupid act. Yeah, well, I mean, there's two investigations going on here. You've a guard investigation into what this is as a burglary and criminal damage. You see, if that investigation going on and you also have you well zone internal investigation to see if they can identify any of the persons at the university's deputy president and interim provost, Professor Anne Ledwiss, you know, in fairness to her, she is a guard. She came out yesterday, she condemned this act of vandalism and she told the US student population in a circulated email that this type of anti-social behavior, not only damages property, but it also damages US reputation, she said, and what she described as US valued community relations. And you know, it's not the first time that there's been anti-social behavior issues in US student community on the off campus areas.

4:09And, you know, there've been complaints from local residents over the years, student landlords over the years in respect of damaged properties, damaged furniture, noise, house parties, you know, street parties. And you might remember there was one notorious incident previously where in the middle of a rave at one of these houses in this area, a shed roof collapsed under the weight of a load of students dancing on the roof. So you know, you've got all this sort of activity going on for years. I was down there, as you said yesterday, and you know, I spoke to a couple of residents, couple of students out in college court outside this house. And you know, one local landlord described the vandalism here as normalized lawlessness. People are so used to this, this happens so regularly down in college court at this landlord, another as I spoke to locally said, they have called for CCTV to be established in the estate itself to act as some kind of deterrent to this annual anti-social behavior in these

5:09areas. And the only thing about this day is just to finish up. These are adults that we're not talking about teenagers who were in secondary school. These are people who should know better and presumably not the way that they were brought up or maybe it was the way they were brought up. But the absolute ridiculousness of this is that these young people are probably going to be tracked down and they're going to face the rigors of the law. Well, that's it. Look, everybody was young, you know, but there's a difference in acting the maggots, I suppose, to use that phrase and just want and destruction of a house. I mean, you had people saying there that this tens of thousands of you were at least worth of damage to that house. Not sure what the new owners make of it. I'm sure they're absolutely devastated at the site that that house is now at the university. That does you say? It has to be boarded up and they have to start again, David. Look, we leave it there for now, David Rally, a reporter in memory. Thanks very much for that update. Absolute insanity. But look, not the first time we've had something like this, but definitely the worst example

6:12that has been videotaped. You can see it online, David hasn't read about that in the independent amongst other newspapers. Congratulations to Peter to me, Timmy, from Limerick, who correctly guessed it, Uncle Fester is part of the Adams family. You have won that overnight stay at the K-Clubs Halloween Spectacular, including dinner, well done to you Peter and thanks to the K-Club. For all the prizes we've given away on the program this week, that is it. My thanks and Anton thanks to the program editor Ashling Moore, producers, Ashling Lynch, Ellen Kenny and Ruth Abbott on research with Shanicole and Eva Flynn. Broadcast assistant was Anne Recan and Carmichael McDonough was on set. News talk breakfast with Anton Savage. In association with air. Weekday mornings at 7. News talk. Conversation that counts.