Family will replace defibrillator stolen from Tullow Street
The smashed glass of the defibrillator on Tullow Street in December 2024. Photo courtesy of Carlow CFR Facebook.
A DEFIBRILLATOR unit on Tullow Street that was vandalised and the machine stolen is to be replaced by the family that originally installed it.
The piece of lifesaving equipment was stolen from its box outside Oak Family Practice on 4 December 2024. It had been installed there in 2021, thanks to the generosity of the Lyons family, who also run a fishing competition in Bagenalstown in memory of their late father Michael Lyons Sr.
“Mam was devastated, as it was put up in memory of my dad,” explained Michael Lyons Jr, who was a founding member of Carlow Community First Responders (CFR). She was “very upset” at the theft, he said.
Caroline Dargan, a co-ordinator with CFR, said the vandalism was “very disheartening”. Each defibrillator “costs a lot to buy and maintain,” she said, which makes it “incredibly frustrating for the Lyons family”. The unit in which the defibrillator is placed costs up to €1,300 and the unit itself can cost €800 to install, she added.
Caroline had immediately reported the theft to gardaí and provided a timeline of when the defibrillator was probably stolen. It was reported that the machine had been “smashed to smithereens” near the Liberty Tree, but ***Storm Darragh*** made landfall the day afterwards and swept away any trace of it.
Additionally, CCTV footage was not helpful: “We generally put them up under a camera for the very reason that vandalism does happen, but I don’t think there was a good line of sight with this one. There was no immediate visibility directly outside of it,” said Caroline.
The gardaí were unable to find the person responsible for the damage in this instance.
“We put in a lot of work into everything we do, but it would be next to impossible to replace every defibrillator that’s damaged. The community has to come together to do that,” said Caroline.
“These things are as strong as the community based around them.” Fortunately, the Lyons family have taken it upon themselves to replace the defibrillator. Michael Jr said he had repaired the glass in the unit, checked the electrics and is sourcing a new AED pack to be installed in the coming weeks.
His reasoning for replacing it is simple: “We know how lucky we are,” he said: “It’s just giving back a little bit.”
