€15M DAMAGE AS TWO FIRES DESTROY TOWN SHOPS AND CHURCH
RQ O’NEILL AND MCKENNA MAN BOTH GUTTED AS SECOND BLAZE DESTROYS LOUTH VILLAGE CHURCH APRIL 2003
FIRES which destroy Louth church and two Dundalk businesses within hours of each other may cost insurers in excess of €15m.
While final assessments will take some time, reliable sources indicate the Earl Street blaze will cost well over €10m, while repairing and re-fitting the Church of the Immaculate Conception will be considerable.
The owners of both R Q O’Neill and McKenna Man pledge to rebuild the family businesses, while Louth parish priest Fr Sean Quinn states it is hoped the 110-year-old church will also be restored.
Fire services within the county are stretched as they fight to bring the two fires under control, with assistance sought from Northern Ireland.
Both blazes are believed to have started accidentally. The church fire breaks out while painters are working on the building, while the exact cause in O’Neill’s has yet to be determined.
Crews from Dundalk, Drogheda, Ardee and Dunleer are at the church in Louth village when the alarm is raised at R Q O’Neill.
A unit from Dundalk responds immediately and is joined by crews who have been in Louth, as well as a machine from Belfast with a 110ft hydraulic platform.
Demolition crews subsequently move in, and days later a gaping hole in Earl Street is all that remains of fine buildings where generations have shopped.
Meanwhile, in Louth parishioners are deeply saddened by the church’s destruction.
Bishop Gerard Clifford celebrates Mass in the community centre and offers his sympathy and that of Archbishop Brady.
He tells the congregation he looks forward to returning when the church is restored.
R Q O’Neill, 100 years established in 2002, is a family-run business, and Brian O’Neill draws solace from the messages of support received from around the world.
‘In all my dealings, I have always spoken up for Dundalk and have been proud of Dundalk, and now the reaction of people shows me that I was right,’ he says.
Staff next door in McKenna Man leave at 6pm and switch on the alarm.
Some twenty minutes later, 15 minutes after the fire is believed to start in O’Neill’s, smoke activates the alarm system.
Snooker tables located in the Commercial Club above McKenna Man come crashing through.
Like his neighbour, PJ McKenna thanks customers, friends and the general public for their good wishes and support.
The menswear business is first opened by his late father, Peter, in 1940.
In what many regard as little short of a miracle, it emerges that the tabernacle and its sacred contents are undamaged by the fire in the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
Fr Gerard McGinnity, parish priest of neighbouring Knockbridge, is restrained by firefighters from entering the building to save the Blessed Eucharist.
Fr Quinn remarks ‘Everyone is very upset at what has happened, especially as it was such a beautiful church.’
Dundalk fire service responds to a call at 4.24pm, arriving at the scene within 17 minutes.