Heartbreak as gravestone smashed in Laois cemetery

A heartbroken son discovered a newly erected headstone for his mother and brother smashed in Emo last night. 

Paddy Dunne had the gravestone placed on his mother, Esther Dunne’s grave on Saturday, July 16 just a day before the first anniversary of her death on July 17, 2021. He found the headstone at the new Cemetery in Emo smashed to pieces at 10.30pm on Tuesday, July 19.

The gravestone was also erected in memory of Paddy’s brother Michael, a mechanic who died tragically in England six years ago when a car jack failed and the car fell on him.  

Mr Dunne’s ex-wife Jessie is appealing for anyone with information to contact the gardai. She said the headstone was perfect at 7.15pm on Saturday as friends of Paddy’s had contacted him to compliment him on how well the gravestone looked. 

“He is sick to his stomach to think someone would do something like that in a graveyard,” Mrs Dunne said. She said he was “tormented” over the vandalism and said: “There’s no logical explanation that we can come up with.” She said he and his two children had saved up to pay for the monument. 

“His brother died tragically in England six years ago, a car fell on him,” she recalled. “He was a mechanic by trade and he had come through an awful battle with cancer and come out the other side,” she said.  Esther too had battled cancer and overcome the illness prior to her death last year, she said. 

Mrs Dunne toured the cemetery on Wednesday and doesn’t believe any of the other headstones were damaged. She believes whoever smashed the headstone arrived at the cemetery equipped with a sledgehammer or some other heavy implement.  

“The guards were called and in their defence, they were out very quickly and they were very good,” Mrs Dunnne explained.

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Mrs Dunne said the incident has been heartbreaking for her ex-husband and he is worried something like this could happen again. She said “the gent who made the gravestone will willingly do another” but Paddy is worried that something like this could happen again. 

She is appealing to anyone who noticed anything suspicious around or in the graveyard on Tuesday, July 19 between 7.15pm and 10.30pm to contact the gardai in Portlaoise.