GARDAÍ HAVE recovered the religious artefact known as the “Precious Shrine of St Manchan” which was stolen from a church in Co Offaly on Friday.
The artefact was found after a car carrying two suspects was stopped by gardaí in Co Offaly just hours after the robbery.
The occupants of the car, who are in their 30s and have addresses in Dublin and Co Offaly, were arrested and taken for questioning to Tullamore Garda station. They have since been released without charge, though the Garda inquiry is continuing and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
This is the latest in a series of similar thefts of artefacts of significant religious value. Gardaí are studying the backgrounds of the two men arrested on Friday and their associates in a bid to determine whether they were involved in some of the other thefts.
The latest incident occurred at about 1.30pm on Friday when the relic was stolen from St Manchan’s Church in Boher, Co Offaly.
The stolen item is estimated to be 900 years old. Made of yew wood and glint bronze, it is more than 2ft long and is 2ft in height.
It was stored in a bullet-proof glass case monitored by CCTV.
Immediately after its theft was noticed, gardaí made a public appeal via the media for anybody with information to come forward.
Witnesses supplied information suggesting men had fled the scene in a green car in the direction of Shannonbridge. A car was later stopped on the N5 and two men were arrested.
Gardaí then studied the movements of the men’s vehicle and their telephone traffic and identified a location of interest at Doon, Co Offaly, with a search there on Saturday yielding the stolen item.
Gardaí believe there are links between a number of recent thefts of such relics and are trying to establish whether the men arrested in Co Offaly are aligned to a gang specialising in the thefts.
In March, an artefact containing the heart of St Laurence O’Toole was stolen from Christ Church Cathedral in the centre of Dublin. Last October the Relic of the True Cross, said to contain fragments of the cross Jesus was crucified on, was stolen from Holycross Abbey in Co Tipperary.
Relics from the cross were recovered in January during a search by gardaí in the midlands.
