A POLITICAL CARTOONIST who was a victim of a theft on a train from Dublin to Athlone has been reunited with the stolen artworks.

Donal Casey, with the help of some friends, had launched a campaign on Facebook and Twitter in a bid to recover the framed illustrations which were stolen at Newbridge rail station on 20 September.

He had been travelling to Athlone to prepare to show the pieces at the Athlone Literary Festival.

Casey told TheJournal.ie today that he’s been reunited with the pieces after a Kildare musician read about his plight in the Kildare Post newspaper.

He said that he was wary of celebrating, as he’s received a few hoax calls about the illustrations being recovered.

CCTV footage from Irish Rail showed a man walking up and down the train carriages before stealing the black Samsonite bag. Upon discovering that there was little of monetary value contained in the bag, it was dumped nearby. The local musician then found the paintings and brought them home.

He contacted organisers of the Athlone festival after reading about the theft in the paper.

Donal Casey told TheJournal.ie that the glass and frames on some of the pictures are damaged, but that hopefully they can be replaced in time for the exhibition, which gets underway next Saturday.