Green politician saves family after home is petrol-bombed
A Green Party councillor rescued his wife and daughter from their home in Cork city early this morning after it was petrol-bombed, it emerged today.
In the third attack on the house in the last 18 months, Chris O’Leary, a fierce critic of anti-social behaviour, woke to find his front door and porch ablaze.
Still shocked from the arson attack, Mr O’Leary described waking at 3.30am with flames and smoke bellowing upstairs.
“I heard something and got out of bed to check it and I got a smell of burning,” he said.
“I could not see so I went downstairs and the door was engulfed in flames which were coming in to meet me.”
The councillor, who has lived in the house in the Mahon area for the last 25 years, raised the alarm then rushed upstairs to get his wife Angela and 12-year-old daughter Orla.
“As we were coming back down the front door, double glazed PVC, was melting away to nothing,” he said. “At that stage it was just a situation where we could not take the heat.”
The family were taken to Cork University Hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation.
Mr O’Leary was adamant his house was targeted because of his stance against anti-social behaviour.
“I have a firm belief it is because of who I am and my stance on anti-social behaviour,” he said.
In the past he has been an outspoken critic of petty thieves, joyriders and drug dealers and called for troublesome families and youths to be evicted from their homes if they refuse to clean up their act. It is the third attack on him and his family in the last 18 months.
The front windows of the O’Leary house have been smashed, his car has been vandalised and the home has suffered other criminal damage, but the councillor said he does not believe the three incidents are connected.
One man has been convicted and jailed for six months for a previous attack on the O’Leary home.
Gardaí are treating the incident as arson and have launched an investigation.
“This is attempted murder, as far as I’m concerned,” said O'Leary.
