Festive cheer was in short supply for Deer Park golf club over the Christmas period when the excellent Howth public golf course facility was vandalised. Joyriders drove a car across the Grace O'Malley nine-hole course damaging a couple of the holes. Then the vehicle was burnt out and left on the course. Fortunately, the damage was not too serious.

Deer Park general manager David Tighe said: "They did a small bit of damage to two of the greens and some of the fairways. Luckily with the weather being so cold, the ground was hard at the time so that helped to limit the damage. Once it thawed out we were able to do the repairs.

"Naturally we are unable to use the damaged areas of the greens, instead having to limit play to the unaffected areas, which is a small corner of each green," said Tighe.