The River Triogue in Mountmellick was just starting to recover after the river was contaminated in 2001. Now that large numbers of wild brown trout have been killed in this latest pollution of the river, Mountmellick Angling Club says it will take another five years to build up fish numbers again, thereby scuppering their chances of holding the championships in 2008.

"We're just heartbroken, " said Simon O'Mara, local angler and national secretary of the Trout Anglers Federation of Ireland (TAFI). "These weren't farmed fish; they were indigenous wild brown trout. We are just a voluntary organisation and it's very hard on us. It's the same as someone burning down a GAA clubhouse. It has set us back years."

The river, which flows through Portlaoise and Mountmellick before entering the River Barrow, was listed as Ireland's fifth most polluted waterway by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2000. Sewage entering the river ruined the river on an almost annual basis in the late 1990s. Recently, however, locals had begun to hope that the river might be improving. The Southern Regional Fisheries Board is investigating the kill and following a definite line of enquiry as to who is responsible for the pollution.

"People have been talking about re-stocking the river, but there is absolutely no point, " said O'Mara. "It would be putting trout into a place where they're certain to die. We believe in this day and age that this shouldn't be allowed happen and we hope the culprits will be caught and heavily fined."

The night before the pollution occurred, O'Mara said the club had been giving its young members tuition on fly-fishing for the start of the season. The next morning, the water was full of sewage and hundreds of dead fish were being washed downstream. Now, no one in the town will be fishing this summer.

"If everything had been as it should have, we would be coming into the best time of the fishing season now, " said O'Mara. "Instead, we are worrying about this mess and trying to figure out strategies to prevent it happening again. But we'll pick ourselves up, highlight the problem and fight against further pollution. That's all we can do."