DISASTER STRIKES.

March 9, 2005. The museum has suffered a very serious blow in that two Leyland Nationals Mk 1 were stolen and destroyed. They were SNG 378 and SNG 409. It is simply heartbreaking and the Gardai are investigating but the damage is done. As they were presented to a scrap dealer for €200 a piece who thought he had the bargain of a lifetime and he has destroyed them. 409 drove all the way from Omagh at a nice steady 60 m.p.h and was in superb mechanical condition.

The bottom line is of course that anyone who turns up with a bus with immaculate interior and body and wants only €200 for it when its six perfect tyres are worth that each should trigger alarm bells. National Recycling Company Limited of Cork and the Kevin Barry scrapyard are professionals and they should have known there was something dodgy about the deal but all they could see was selling the Gardner for €3000, the tyres for about €2,000 and god knows what else. In my book theft is theft and they should have known the were getting stolen goods. Like the Health scandal they will argue they knew nothing. In my book they are just as guilty of theft as the people who organised it. No paperwork was delivered with the buses and no proof of ownership was asked or got. Anthony Twohig, Managing Director of National Recycling Company Limited of Cork deserves to go to jail.

409 is totally irreplaceable being the only Aer Lingus survivor other than LS6 which is promised to Mike Nash.It really makes you wonder why you go to all the trouble to preserve buses and then you read the snide comments on our discussion board from ignorant louts. Well, for once they are right as we have lost two priceless vehicles but what do you do? Chain all your buses to the bed every night? One would never think of somone stealing two buses and trying to scrap them so fast and it would have been the perfect crime if I had not had a phone call from a museum spporter who saw them moving and was kind enought to call me. They were gone within six hours. Totally and utterly tragic. I am devastated and sickened. And all for what? I hope they find the *******s.

Michael Grimes