INNOCENT COUPLE CAUGHT IN FEUD
Drogheda pair homeless after firebomb attack
AN INNOCENT couple have told of the nightmare of being wrongly linked to a bloody feud – after their family home was petrol-bombed.
Damien and Frances Nugent revealed they were 30 seconds away from dying inside their house.
The Nugents are now homeless following the devastating firebomb attack in Drogheda just over a week ago.
They both attended an anti-violence rally in the Co. Louth town on Saturday, and have told how they are totally innocent
and have nothing to do with the ongoing feud in the town.
Mr Nugent said reports in the media suggested the house was targeted because of the criminal feud that has brought terror to the town – but added that couple in fact have nothing to do with the escalating situation.
Standing outside what remains of their home in Loughboy, Mell, he said: ‘What we are trying to put across is what is being put in the papers – that our house was involved as part of this ongoing drugs feud – and literally we want to clear our names and to state, and anyone that knows me and Frances could 100% say, that we have nothing whatsoever to do with this drugs feud.’
The attack has left their house uninhabitable, and Mr Nugent said: ‘We are literally homeless at the minute.’
Mrs Nugent said they were asleep in bed in the early hours of last Sunday week, April 28, when she heard a sound that awoke her. She then woke up her husband.
Mrs Nugent said: ‘I went to open the bedroom door and saw everything was just brightness. I said to
‘We should have been dead’
my husband, “Run, run, run, get out, get out!” We ran down the stairs. In the nick of time we got to the door and no more. I really and truly mean we should have been dead.’
Mr Nugent added that if they had been even 30 seconds later running down the stairs, ‘we would not be here talking to you’.
Since then they have been staying with family and friends.
A rally on Saturday against the violence in the town heard calls for gardaí to be given the resources needed to tackle the feud. Mr Nugent said they attended this rally because ‘we are sick of this going on and innocent people getting victimised over this so-called drugs feud when it has nothing to do with them whatsoever’.
Around 500 people attended the rally, which sent out a message of solidarity, telling the criminals: ‘Enough is enough.’
The event was organised by Paddy McQuillan after the most recent shooting, which happened on a busy street and left one man with three gunshot wounds.
Mr McQuillan said the rally was not political, adding: ‘This is more than politics; this is Drogheda.’
He continued: ‘We stand here shoulder to shoulder for one reason only: we demand that [Justice] Minister Charlie Flanagan gives our gardaí the resources they need to rid our streets of this violence once and for all. We are sick of it, enough is enough.’
The Mayor of Drogheda, Frank Godfrey, said: ‘I am appealing to those involved in this current spate of intimidation and violence to stop and to stop it now.
‘The good people of Drogheda do not deserve to be living in fear in their own town. We will not be intimidated. We want peace and calm restored.’
Councillor Pio Smith, who works in addiction services, said: ‘We are saying publicly to people all over Ireland that the values of the people of Drogheda – justice, the rule of law, community, decency – are the values that exist in this town and not the values of violence, intimidation and terror, and that is what we are standing up to today.’
Community representative Ann McVeigh added: ‘People have been shot in broad daylight. It is unbelievable this is happening. People are afraid to let their children out to play in areas of this town. They are afraid to send their children to school because of repercussions.
‘You are afraid to go home... You are sitting there watching Coronation Street or Game Of Thrones and there are petrol bombs being thrown at people’s houses. We can’t accept that anymore.’
Election candidate Declan Power said: ‘This has to stop. The people of Drogheda will be silenced no more.’ Councillor Joanna Byrne said: ‘It is time to show these mindless yobs that we are not afraid, we will stand together, we will host the Fleadh again this August and it will be bigger, it will be better and the Drogheda civic spirit will shine through.’
Councillor Richie Culhane said: ‘We are united in saying to those people: we don’t want you in our town, take your guns, your bombs, your drugs and leave.’
Alice Duff, a mother of four, asked whether the Minister for Justice was really listening. She said: ‘This is not a story about naughty boys behaving badly and running amok in the streets. This is t he story of a potential bloodbath on our streets.
‘If the minister had given us the necessary resources he promised us last year, then maybe none of this would be happening at all.’
Louth Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan said last week the feud was between two criminal gangs that ‘have imploded’ and ‘are led by a small cohort’ – but added that ‘there are a considerable number of people behind them to carry out violent acts on their behalf’.
People ‘afraid to let their children out’