Murray family still relives horror of attack 5 years on

FIVE years ago this week, the nation recoiled in horror when two Limerick children received horrific burns after their family car was firebombed as their mother was about to set off on a Sunday afternoon drive.

Millie Murray, then 6, and her brother, Gavin, then 4, are still undergoing surgery for the burns they received.

Such was the severity of Gavin’s burns that one of his ears melted. Both have undergone major skin grafts and their treatment will continue for years.

The family were moved from their home in Moyross to a new and bigger house.

Speaking at her home at Clonile, their mother Sheila revealed that the true horror of that day five years ago was only now sinking in with her.

“I look at their scars every day. I tried to block it out of my mind for a few years, but now I am going back over that day and it drives me mad.

“I have had to start counselling. And this is happening when things had begun to calm down and Millie and Gavin do not have to travel up to the Children’s Hospital in Crumlin as often. I have time to think now five years on and everything is coming into my head.”

Of the three teenagers who carried out the attack, she said: “They are sick. People say they have done their time, but still they ruined my kids’ lives and all our lives over what they did.

“I have to go to hospital in Dublin when Millie and Gavin go and then have to look after my other kids as well.

“My whole family were scattered all over the place… We got a life sentence and they got a few years…

“To the day they die, my kids will see what has been done to them every time they look in a mirror… There is nothing ‘all right’ and it will never be ‘all right’. It was sick what they did. They did this over not giving one of them a drive into town to the courthouse.”

Sheila has lost count of the number of operations the two children have undergone. “Dr Orr is fantastic. He sits the kids down every time they go up and explains every single thing that he has to do and what he wants to do and if it’s all right with them. He said to Gavin last time, ‘I will do what ever you want me to do’.”

Gavin, she said, still gets nightmares.

“It could be twice a week. The other night the nightmare was so bad, he was vomiting. I was up for hours with him.

“Sometimes he thinks the house is on fire and tries to get out the door. So I have to keep the key off the door. Millie I know gets nightmares, but she keeps everything in.”

Despite what happened, Sheila has only kind words and thoughts for her many friends in Moyross.

She said Millie and Gavin were getting on great at national school.

“We had loads of great neighbours on that road in Moyross and we used to have a great laugh. I miss them and miss living over there. Even if the washing machine broke down, there would loads of young fellows who could fix it. They were brilliant at fixing things. If they could get things for them to do, they wouldn’t be in half the trouble…

“I got on great with my old neighbours and still love to meet them.”