Christmas tree thieves raid the State forests in Glencree area of County Wicklow.
Christmas is coming, bringing with it a huge demand for Christmas trees. The starting price for fir trees is around 70 pence, increasing according to size. In Dublin, a six-foot Christmas tree is selling for £1.70.
The prices are shooting up, and the trees are coming down for Christmas, many of them coming down illegally.
Eager for a piece of this lucrative market, opportunistic thieves are stealing State plantations. Under cover of darkness, they are cutting down hundreds of young fir trees, particularly in the Glencree area of County Wicklow.
Dozens of felled trees subsequently found unsuitable for sale in city shops were dumped along the Glencree road.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 17 December 1975. The reporter is Colm Connolly.
