A post box, which is believed to date from the beginning of the last century, has been ripped from the wall of the Baronstown Estate in Co Westmeath.
The box, which bore the insignia VR (Victoria Regina), had been positioned on the wall at the Grand Gate of the estate in Ballynacargy, once the seat of the Malone family.
A local resident said people were "very upset to see such destruction".
"We all posted letters there, and if we had no stamps we put money in and the postman would sort it. Those were the days of the walking and cycling postman", she said.
The post box would have originally been painted red, but was painted green when Ireland became a Free State.
The VR post box at Baronstown was one of a few remaining such artefacts.
