{"id":282855,"date":"2025-07-22T15:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T15:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282855\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T15:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T15:39:17","slug":"total-lack-of-respect-headstones-smashed-in-co-antrim-graveyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282855\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Total lack of respect\u2019: Headstones smashed in Co Antrim graveyard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stock image. Picture: Aodhan Roberts\/Belfast Telegraph.<\/p>\n

A number of headstones have been smashed at a church graveyard in Ballymena, with police condemning the incident as showing \u201ca total lack of respect\u201d.<\/p>\n

The PSNI received a report on Monday afternoon (July 21) that headstones had been smashed at the graveyard located on the Cushendall Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was reported that a teenage male had entered the area to carry out this appalling act of criminal damage, before running off down the Cushendall Road shortly before 1.45pm,\u201d said Chief Inspector Tate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage caused to the graves shows a total lack of respect and is very upsetting for grieving loved ones, when a graveyard is meant to be a place for quiet reflection to pay respects.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur enquiries into this incident are ongoing and we would ask those who saw anyone acting suspiciously in the area or if you have information that would help our investigation, to contact us on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference number 806 21\/07\/25.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe young male is believed to have been wearing a white coat and had black hair, so this may help if you were in the area between 1pm and 2pm yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stock image. Picture: Aodhan Roberts\/Belfast Telegraph.<\/p>\n

News Catch Up – Tuesday 22nd July <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stock image. Picture: Aodhan Roberts\/Belfast Telegraph. A number of headstones have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1211,5825,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-282855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-antrim-news","9":"tag-niamh-campbell","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114897640746093528","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}