THE DEAN of Christ Church Cathedral, Water­ford, the Very Revd Trevor Lester, has des­cribed as “horrific” the damage done by vandals, thought to be searching for money on Sunday night.

The intruders ripped up floorboards in the vestry, and punched holes in the ceiling of the building, designed by the 18th-century archi­tect John Roberts, clogging several of the 25,000 pipes in the Thomas Elliott organ, which was only recently restored at a cost of €500,000. “It will cost us half that again to repair all the damage that these mindless thugs have done. It is horrific,” the Dean said on Monday.