Lucky to be alive after explosion

June 1993

GARDAÍ and workmen were lucky to escape with their lives after controlled dynamiting at Belleece quarry in Rathdrum went badly wrong last Friday.

The explosion threw boulders half a mile from the quarry face, leaving a number of local residents frightened and shocked.

The accident occurred at 1.40 a.m. last Friday at the famous limestone quarry in Parnell country when a routine rock blast sent a hail of stones fo all sizes flying through surrounding forestry and fields.

Shrapnel and fragments of stone showered an area of a quarter of a mile away where a group of workmen and Gardaí were sheltering.

One stone struck a 46 year old block machine manager in the group, Michael Furlong who suffered a broken collar bone.

He was removed to Loughlinstown Hospital and detained until Sunday.

Nobody else was reported injured but, in the hail of stones, two Garda cars were damaged.

Guard Mick Madigan from Rathdrum and Det Gda Nick Crennan of Wicklow, who supervised the explosion, were standing with the group.

‘We were just chatting under a bank at what we thought was a safe place. Then we heard the crack of the explosion and saw stones flying through the trees,’ recalled Garda Madigan.

Local residents said that a massive boulder passed over a cottage - in which four small children were present - and landed in the garden.

Another, weighing 100 kilos, crashed into a field belonging to Teila and Con Cashman and, after bounding three times, buried itself along with a dozen other fragments.

It is understood that the quarry owners, Dan Morrissey Ltd, believe a hidden fault in the rock structure resulted in rock fragments being thrown out of the surrounding quarry area.

Nine different hooles had been drilled into the quarry-face at a depth of 56 feet and it was Mr Philip Morrissey who, sheltering behind a JCB bucket, nearby with an explosives expert, detonated the explosives.

They knew from the moment the explosion happened that something had gone wrong.

The company is now re-examining its safety precautions to prevent a recurrence.