'Whoever is doing it please STOP,' people incensed at theft from teenager's grave

The theft of sentimental items from the grave of a Limerick teenager who was the victim of a fatal drink-driving collision in Tipperary has left people incensed.

The heartbroken mother of the late Kevin Walsh from Bruff discovered that sentimental items have been removed from her son’s grave in a county Limerick cemetery.

Kevin Walsh was just 16 when he passed away after being in a collision in which former Ireland and Munster rugby star Eddie Halvey, who was drunk driving, rear ended the parked car that Kevin was seated in the back of.

The collision occurred outside Toomevara, in Co Tipperary in April 2006.

Kevin’s mother Kate Tierney Walsh, from Bruff, posted photographs of the missing sentimental items - small gnomes in the form of Limerick hurlers - on Facebook in the hope that someone would find it in their heart to return them or give information on their whereabouts.

A total of three Limerick hurling gnomes and one soccer gnome were taken from her son’s grave at Knockainey Cemetery.

This is the second time in recent weeks that such objects were taken from the sport-loving teenager’s grave. 

“To say I'm upset is an understatement - went today to cut the grass at my son Kevin's grave as usual and to find that a person or persons had taken the Limerick gnomes off my son’s grave,” Ms Tierney Walsh wrote on the social media site.

The devastated mother explained that she is “17 years doing up the grave and I'm sickened to think there's people out there doing this -  they took three Limerick hurling gnomes and one soccer gnome”.

In a plea from the heart she penned: “Whoever is doing it please STOP it's enough having to go to his grave besides some low life stealing from it. Some of these things are not replaceable. I hope whoever took them won't have an ounce of luck for doing it. Feeling heartbroken.”

Former Irish rugby international Eddie Halvey received a seven-month suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and careless driving at the time of the collision. Halvey was also disqualified from driving for seven years at the Circuit Court in Nenagh, Co Tipperary in 2009. The late Kevin Walsh’s uncle Vincent Tierney, from Bruff, had stopped on the hard shoulder outside Toomevara to try to clear the road of stray cattle, when the Toyota Landcruiser driven by Eddie Halvey rammed into the back of his BMW car.

Vincent's brother, Declan, was a front-seat passenger.

In an emotional plea to the public, Declan Tierney spoke to local radio station, Live95, expressing his anger at the removal of the objects from his nephew’s grave. “It is very hard to believe that people can do these things, in this day and age, that they have the audacity to go in and steal stuff off a grave - a child’s grave,” Mr Tierny said.

“For every Limerick match, she [Kate] has the grave done up with the Limerick flags and everything and it is fabulous, outstanding - it is a credit to her.”

Addressing that this is the second incident in which a theft has happened at his nephew’s grave, Mr Tierney continued: “You would want to have some neck to go into a graveyard and steal off a grave.

“The first time it happened you could say, OK, maybe it was youngsters or someone in there with children who picked one up but no, whoever they are, they’re coming in and lifting stuff off of that grave and the other graves are all fine in and around the area.”

Messages condemning the theft have been flooding in via the comments section under Kate’s Facebook post, with one person saying: “That is horrendous Kate - Kevin’s grave is always so well kept. Lots of hugs”.

Another posted: “There are some very sick people out there. They should be ashamed of themselves. So sorry you have to go through this.”