Opportunist thieves entered the changing rooms at the Garrison based Devenish St Mary’s GAA club house and stole mobile phones, bank cards, wallets and other valuables belonging to players during a training session on Sunday morning.

The theft occurred while the club coming to terms with the sad news of the death of  Devenish stalwart and honorary club president Jimmy Mulrone. 

Recently, there has been a spate of incidents in North Fermanagh after the Christmas tree in Belleek was cut down on Christmas Day, and cars were broken into by thieves at Castle Caldwell and valuables were taken from the vehicles.

Club members have been left reeling after the thefts, and Brendan Gallagher, secretary of Devenish St Mary’s GAA club says security will unfortunately have to be reviewed.

 “These players do not go to training on a Sunday morning expecting something like this to happen.

Everyone is shocked that it happened, and it is not what we want to see in the locality. Thankfully this is not something that is commonplace in the area. There was no damage done during the incident but personal items and valuables belonging to a number of players were taken.

“This is part of our player’s lives – boys heading to training do not expect this, and it should not be a concern. It is sad that it has had come to this but we will have ensure that further security measures and preventive measures are put in place to ensure that this does not happen again.”

Mr Gallagher also appealed for anyone with any information to get in contact.

“The police were down and spoke with anyone who was in the area, but if there is any more information out there or anyone seen anything suspicious, we would be grateful if people could come forward.” 

Police have confirmed that they received the report of burglary at a GAA Club in the Loughside Road area of Garrison around 11.30am on Sunday January 6th.

They appealed for witnesses saying, “We believe entry to the changing rooms at the Club was gained sometime between 10am and 10.30am on Sunday. I would appeal to anyone who was in the area around this time and saw any suspicious activity or any suspicious vehicles, or who is offered a mobile phone for sale in suspicious circumstances to get in touch.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call police on the non emergency number 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.