A GROUP of international sea kayakers returned from a day’s training course off the Donegal coast on Wednesday evening to find the tyres had been slashed on one of their cars.
Fifteen kayakers left Carrickfinn Boat Strand at 1pm on Wednesday to survey some of the local awe-inspiring coastline. They came from England, Portugal, Poland, Sweden and France.
Their leader included Eileen Murphy of Shearwater Sea Kayaking, based in Howth and Catriona Woods from Letterkenny.
Speaking to Dónal MacRuairí on Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Barrscéalta programme yesterday, Thursday, Ms Murphy said that were very disappointed and embarrassed by the incident.
“I’ve been travelling to this area for more than ten years and brought groups from all over the world to this wonderful place with its great hospitality, restaurants and accommodation. I’m very disappointed and embarrassed that such a thing happened,” she said.
Ms Murphy told listeners that she didn’t report the incident to the Gardai.
“The reason I’m highlighting it on the Barrscéalta programme is that I hope the person who carried out this attack may come forward so that I can ask them if there were any issues with the way we left out cars by the pier,” she said.
Experienced kayakers, she said, always ensure that when they arrive at a slipway or pier they always make sure that they’re not impeding access to the facility.
“We will continue to come back to Donegal where the local waters have been voted number one in the world for kayaking but we’re embarrassed by this incident,” Ms Murphy said.
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