Neighbours shocked by weekend of ‘madness’ in Moyross

PAUL Ryan has lived in Pineview Gardens, Moyross most of his life, but has never witnessed anything like last weekend’s violence.

“I have seen some hairy moments in Moyross in my time, but this is the worst I have seen it. When we were growing up you had fellows who were tough. But now it’s madness. It’s sick.

“You can’t blame it on drugs either. Over the weekend they were out there throwing fire bombs. We never had that before in Moyross. Whatever has got into their brains with these fire bombs? It’s like what you’d see in the North years ago what we saw on Saturday night.

“There were more than 200 lads on the road and the guards were arresting people and that fuelled the aggro.

“But what happened with the children being burned in the car; nobody can understand why that happened.”

The 25-year-old said he had considered moving out of Pineview Gardens.

“But,” he added, “if you turn your back on the place, you turn your back on all the fine people out here.

He warned, however, “The council is moving troublesome people out of Southill to Moyross and troublesome people from Moyross to Southill and only replacing bad with bad.”

Genieve Hoare, 20, lived next door to Sheila Murray — the mother whose two children were at the centre of Sunday’s horrific arson attack in Moyross — at No 91 Pineview Gardens.

“I came back and saw the ambulances. Little Gavin is always in and out of my house playing with my child. We call him ‘Gummy’ because he has no front teeth. He started school last Monday and he was marching up and down the road showing off his new school uniform as proud as could be. And to have this done to him and Millie.”

She said Sheila was a very kind neighbour.

“Sheila was always taking in animals found straying in the area; dogs, cats and she even took in a duck at one stage. Sheila is a very compassionate person. They are a very popular family and we all know the children.

“Sheila was calling to Millie’s godmother, Rose Bond, just around the corner when the fire happened.”

Her sister, Nicole Hoare who lives down the street with her two children, said the weekend violence was the worst she has ever witnessed on the estate.

“Something like that to happen in the middle of the day. My brother Garret [aged 18] and Ross Kelly [aged 16] went to rescue the kids from the car and helped get one of them out of the car.

“We have anti-social behaviour going on, but these fire bombs are new. They must have seen them on TV.”

Another resident said the weekend attacks on gardaí were well organised.

He said: “The young lads were waiting to ambush the guards and had weapons hidden in back gardens when the guards arrived.

“It’s never been this bad before.”