CORMAC F. LOWTH,
Sir, - The stone monument in Dun Laoghaire which commemorates the 15 lifeboatmen who lost their lives while attempting to save the crew of a wrecked ship has been vandalised by paint and foul graffiti.
The cretins who are capable of this sort of defacement clearly could have no understanding of the motivations of these brave men, who represented most of the religious denominations of this country, as they went out in gale-force winds on Christmas eve 1895 in pursuit of a common purpose of the most noble sort - the saving of human life.
This simple stone is not only a monument to those misfortunate men who risked and ultimately lost their lives. It contains a powerful message to all of the people of this island today and it is a reminder to us that lifeboatmen on every coast throughout the years have gone to sea when the need arose to attempt to save their fellow men. The crews of lifeboats today face much the same dangers with the same selfless ethos whenever they are called upon.
The nearby monument to the Leinster disaster of 1918 and the O'Connor sculpture of the Crucifixion across the road have also been defaced.
However, we can take some comfort from the certain knowledge that the memory of the heroic lifeboatmen will live on and be commemorated long after all traces of the mindless idiots who carried out this vile deed have been cast into the anonymity and obscurity which they deserve. - Yours, etc.,
CORMAC F. LOWTH,
(Member of the
Maritime Institute),
Maplewood Way,
Dublin 24.