Murray family gets €270,000 house after council seals deal

LIMERICK City Council yesterday closed a deal for the purchase of a €270,000 home for the Murray family over the objection of local residents.

The council rebuffed the residents of a private estate at Clonile, Old Cratloe Road, who were opposed to the purchase of the four-bedroomed house. It will be rented to Sheila Murray, who is expected to move in over the coming days.

The house has a converted garage which can be used for the daily physiotherapy programme drawn up for her children, Millie and Gavin, who were badly burned in a September petrol bomb attack.

Six-year-old Millie will be allowed home from Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin for Christmas, but a final decision on whether four-year-old Gavin can come home has yet to be taken by his doctors.

Ms Murray was given the news when she met council officials at city hall.

More than 60 residents had signed a petition opposing the Murray family being moved into the estate.

Ms Murray and her four other children are living in cramped conditions with relatives in Garryowen.

Ms Murray said: “There are 11 children and three adults in the house. I sleep in the sitting room with one of the kids. It is very cramped and it’s not very comfortable.”

The residents opposed to the family moving in sent copies of their petition to the city council, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea and Peter Power, TD. It is believed they are not opposed to Ms Murray and her family, but are concerned about a contact of the family.

They have also told public representatives they are uneasy at the security measures likely to be imposed on their estate to prevent any further attack on Ms Murray, whose previous home in Moyross was attacked after the petrol bomb. She has pledged that she would never return to Moyross.

Limerick City Council director of housing Pat Dowling had stated that the council was determined to get a house to meet the needs of the Murray family.

He said Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin had given them certain specifications to enable the treatment of Millie and Gavin to continue at home after they are allowed out of hospital.