A rural pub owner has been left "absolutely shocked" after a burglar left 15 beer taps running after breaking into the premises.

Joe Watty’s pub in Kilronan, Inis Mór, was the victim of a "spiteful" attack on St Patrick's morning.

Pub owner, PJ Flaherty, told Independent.ie he was "absolutely shocked" when he entered the pub and saw the damage.

"We arrived on Saturday morning and found that the place was broken into. Our kitchen window was broken, money and cigarettes were stolen and the place was flooded with beer.

"The culprit left on all 15 beer taps and flooded the place. We could have had a bath in the beer there was that much on the floor."

PJ said that he was expecting a "very busy" day and was devastated by the damage.

"The St Patrick's Day parade goes past our pub so we usually have a very busy crowd. It's a huge family day at our pub and we had extra staff in preparation for the day."

PJ said that with the help of "excellent" staff, friends and neighbours, the pub was cleaned up and ready to open in time for the parade.

"We did manage to open thank God but we lost 15 kegs of beer. Whoever did it was intent on causing as much destruction as possible. They were trying to sabotage our day for sure.

"The total damage cost us around €7,000. We're also worried that we'll have to replace the timber floor if it begins to bulge after the flooding."

He added that recent storms had damaged some of the pub's CCTV cameras but a few cameras were still operating.

"We do have some footage of the heavily disguised culprit and gardai are looking into it. We definitely have our suspicions about who it was."

PJ added that nothing like this has happened in the area before.

"The locals are all shocked. The island is a very safe place. This kind of crime is unheard of in the area."

Gardai said that they were investigating the burglary which occurred in the early hours of St Patrick's morning.

Online Editors