Cars with pro-choice stickers have tyres slashed: "It’s really cowardly. It’s ugly and unfair and upsetting" 

VANDALS have slashed the tyres of a number of cars in the city bearing pro-choice stickers.

Gardaí have received complaints of broken wing mirrors and wipers and tyre slashings from people whose cars still bear ‘Together for Yes’ and ‘Repeal the Eighth’ stickers from last year’s referendum.

The victims believe the incidents are targeted against pro-choice supporters following the introduction of abortions in Ireland in recent weeks but gardaí have not given a motive for the vandalism.

At least six cars with the pro-choice stickers have been targeted in the last two weeks while parked on Wellington Road and areas in The Glen, Old Youghal Road, and St Luke’s.

Aoibhín Sheehy parked her car on Charlemont Terrace, off Wellington Road, on Sunday night, and woke up yesterday morning to find all four tyres of her car had been slashed, along with damage to a wing mirror and back window wiper.

Her car had a ‘Together for Yes’ sticker on the back window.

Jules Gilson parked her car, which has a ‘Repeal the Eighth’ sticker on the window, around the corner on Wellington Road on the same night and found her car with similar damage yesterday morning.

Ms Sheehy said she felt “genuinely awful” about the incident and believes her car had been singled out.

“Someone has a serious vendetta against people showing support for these women,” Ms Sheehy said.

“They used a knife. It’s kind of scary. If I had been on the street or in my car, what would have happened?”

Ms Sheehy said that while she feared being targeted again, she wants to keep the sticker on her car.

“I’m really torn as to whether to take the sticker down. But I shouldn’t have to. I’m not going to hide the way they are,” she said.

Ms Gilson said she believes the cars were being targeted because of the stickers.

“They’re clearly not random. If you want to stop someone using a car, you only need to stab one tyre, not all four. And ours was the only one on the street. It was clearly a pattern.

“It’s really cowardly. It’s ugly and unfair and upsetting,” she said.

These were not the first incidents in the area.

Nóirín De Barra returned home to Wellington Road last Sunday week to find that two of her tyres had been slashed, and called the gardaí.

The following morning she woke up to find that the vandals had returned and slashed her other two tyres.

She had a ‘Together for Yes’ sticker in her back window and it wasn’t until several days later while talking to the gardaí again that the connection emerged, as a number of other incidents had been reported.

She said that she took her sticker down.”I was sad to take it down, but I can’t afford to replace my tyres every week.”

Sineád Halpín, a candidate for the Social Democrats who was an activist in the local campaign during the last referendum, said that the incidents have caused a lot of worry for women living in the area.

“It’s very much targeted. That’s what’s frightening about it. People are worried to park in front of their own houses,” she said.