Yesteryears: 40 years ago this month vandals caused extensive damage to Clonmel school

Yesteryears ventures back all of 40 years this week to our first edition  dated January 1, 1983.

That week our main front page story reported that extensive damage had been caused to the Presentation Convent School in Clonmel by a gang of vandals, leaving the nuns bewildered and shocked at the terrible destruction wrought on the administrative section of the school.

The offices of the school principal, Sr Colette, and the secretary, Sr Maura, were almost completely destroyed. The intruders had smashed a glass panel to gain entry and once inside they seemed determined to destroy virtually everything in sight, the report stated.

In another front page piece we reported from a hearing of Clonmel District Court where seven Carrick-on-Suir men were charged with the larceny of £360 worth of shoes from their employer, Padmore & Barnes, Nelson Street, Clonmel, over a two-month period. All now were unemployed, the report added.

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Having heard the evidence, the judge imposed fines according to the number of shoes taken by each defendant and ordered each of them to pay the value of the shoes they stole to the company.

In another front page piece we informed readers that a Clonmel woman, Mary Corbett, Knocklofty, beat off the challenge of rock enthusiasts all over the country when she was successful in capturing a white leather coat owned by rock superstar Phil Lynott for £350 in a charity auction over the air on RTE Radio 2.

A delighted Mrs Corbett told The Nationalist that her daughter was a big fan of Phil Lynott, lead singer of rock group Thin Lizzy.