Vandals with sledgehammers have smashed a number of recently erected engraved stone plaques on five Galway islands on Lough Corrib.
The stone signs were all engraved with the name of the island in the old-style Irish script lettering and anglers had worked voluntarily on them for months to have them erected in time for the tourist season.
Sawdoctors singer and keen angler Leo Moran was among the first to discover that some of the stone signs had been destroyed.
He and another angler made the discovery by chance when they anchored their boat off one of the 365 islands on Lough Corrib last week.
"It was a shock for the system to see how the stones had been smashed and for no apparent motive," said Mr Moran.
Headford angler Mr Michael Monaghan said this "mission of vengeance" must have been carried out under cover of darkness as the lake is very busy this time of the year and somebody would have seen it happening if it was done during daylight hours.
"This is wanton thuggery at its worst and it is so sad as many anglers had worked voluntarily to erect the engraved limestone plaques on each island.
"The lake covers an estimated 44,000 acres and so far five of the islands which we have checked all have had the stone plaques smashed and there may be more," said Mr Monaghan.
Minister of State Mr Eamon O Cuiv, who had made funding available last November to buy and engrave the limestone plaques, said their destruction was an attack on Ireland's culture and heritage.
"The stone plaques were engraved in the old Irish script style known as the clo Gaelach. The anglers had agreed to give their time free to erect them on each island and I got modest funding for the project from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. I thought it was one of the most creative millennium projects that had come before us." Since last November the stone signs have been erected on about one third of the 365 uninhabited islands and according to Mr O Cuiv, who lives nearby in Cornamona, this was the first stage of a tourist project by the anglers.
"They have also been working on a booklet which will be available to all tourists to the region with a detailed map of the lake with the English translation of each island name on it.
"So when visiting anglers approach an island they will be able to refer to this map and instantly know where they are from matching its translation on the chart with the inscription on the stone sign," said Mr O Cuiv.
As about 100 of the 365 islands have had stones erected it will take the anglers some time to inspect them all. A garda visited some of the islands to find that so far five have had their inscription stones destroyed. All the other islands will be surveyed to find out the extent of the damage.