CO DOWN GAA CLUB DESTROYED BY FIRE

A Gaelic Athletic Association club in Co Down has been destroyed in what is suspected to have been an arson attack.

The fire service were alerted to the blaze at Attical Gaelic Football Club late on Thursday 20 July but were unable to halt the fire, which swept through the timber structured building, destroying its contents.

Club Chairman Seamus Quinn said that the blaze had effectively destroyed the club’s history, as the building had contained archives and photographs dating back to the clubs formation.

While it is still unclear as to what caused the conflagration, police will be pursuing a line of inquiry involving suspected arson, as the club had recently received a number of threats.

Several GAA clubs have come under attack during the past fortnight.

A car abandoned outside a GAA club in Armoy, County Antrim on 7 July was found to have contained two pipe bombs, which had already exploded. British army bomb disposal experts were called in to deal with the incident, which occurred on the Glenshesk Road, and they confirmed that two devices had gone off inside the car. A second vehicle found outside a Ballycastle GAA club was later declared a hoax, after police carried out a controlled explosion. (CL)