An investigation is under way after more than 100 panes of glass were broken at a COI church in Tullamore, Co Offaly. It has been estimated that repairing the windows and installing security measures could cost up to €70,000.

Reverend Isaac Delamere from St Catherine’s Church says he felt “incredibly sad and numb” after the discovery of the broken windows.

Rev Delamere said he believes it was probably young people “messing or having a laugh”, but the scale of the damage and the number of stones that were flung into the church show that it took a long time to do the damage.

He said that there was no question that it was a sectarian attack and the entire community was shocked and saddened by it.

Alan Wallace, a parishioner, said the church had been there for 203 years without such an incident happening. “What does that say about society and where society is going?” he asked.

Mr Wallace said he knew Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan well but felt much safer decades ago when Oliver Flanagan, his father, was minister for defence. He said that back then he “slept easier in my bed than I am sleeping at the moment and that is mirrored across the country, but most people are afraid to talk about it”.

“I suppose parents not teaching children discipline, not to damage things, to respect older people. The old values seem to be forgotten a lot,” he said.