A Fianna Fáil councillor has said that criminals who stole and vandalised a charity sculpture of a cow, which had been put on display in a Dundalk park, should be flogged.
Cllr Rosemary Farrell is the chairwoman of Dundalk Town Council's arts committee and said that those responsible were involved "in pure thuggery".
The multi- coloured cow, Tain-ya, was one of a number made by artists and celebrities and put on display around the State before being auctioned off for charity earlier this year.
The vandalism of the art at Ice House Hill Park follows the destruction of a large number of graves and headstones in the town cemetery. It is also the second time in as many months that a work of art has been damaged in the park.
The cow, which was designed by local artist Patricia Murray, had been bolted into the ground, but the fastenings were removed and the large sculpture was carried some distance, and possibly hidden overnight, before it was found impaled on a fence in the park the next day.
Cllr Farrell suspects that it may have been removed from the park because a search on the day it was stolen proved fruitless. It only reappeared when it had been put on to the fence and an attempt made to set it on fire.
"We have it now in the Town Hall, and it will be repaired. The reality is that someone must have seen whoever took the cow because there are a lot of houses in the area.
£This crime benefited nobody but upset the town council as well as the Naughton family who purchased and donated it to the park, and the artist involved," she said.
This was not a crime committed by people who needed money for a drug problem. "These were mindless thugs, and putting them in jail would be no addition because they would only learn new skills, and this is where flogging comes in as punishment for them," Cllr Farrell said.