Local club have beef with rogue cows after they moo-ve in and destroy pitch

By Mary Dennehy

THE new Tallaght Town AFC committee has had a run-in with its new neighbours, a destructive herd of roaming cattle that destroyed the club’s grounds only days before the schoolboy league kicks off.

Last weekend, a herd of cattle, which the club claims was grazing on council-owned land, broke through a ditch and entered Carolan Park, destroying the pitches and leaving six-inch hoof marks across the soft, water-sodden grounds.

Alan Merriman, who played with Tallaght Town AFC in the past and is now a new committee member, told The Echo: “The pitches are destroyed and because of all of the rain, the cows just sunk and have left hoof marks that are six and seven inches deep.

“They really couldn’t have picked a worse day to break through the ditch, the amount of damage left is unbelievable.”

He added: “When we went back up to the grounds later in the afternoon, the herd of cattle had disappeared into thin air.
“We tried to track the cows down but had no luck.

“There are cows grazing on the council land beside us [Kiltipper Park] so we contacted South Dublin County Council and the gardai.”

However, the club is not allowing the positivity around Postal Aylesbury’s move to Tallaght Town AFC to be milked by the unruly herd and is instead called on parents and members of the wider community to help them repair the grounds last Saturday, March 4.

When contacted by The Echo, a spokeswoman for the council said: “The council has not leased any land for the purpose of grazing cattle in the Kiltipper area.

“The council is investigating the matter. There was no breach of the council’s boundary fencing in Kiltipper Park, which indicates that the cattle did not enter Carolan Park from council lands.”