The Five Demands

Parla la madre di una delle vittime dell’esplosione a Lurgan che ha ferito 3 bambini

Karen Hendron, cattolica, 36 anni fa si trovava a bordo di un’auto bomba a Hannahstown, la figlia Lauren è una delle 3 vittime della bomba contenuta in un cassonetto esploso a Lurgan sabato 14 agosto. Con lei altri due bambini feriti nell’attentato che si pensa fosse stato concepito come trappola per le forze di polizia.
Parlando dello stato di shock in cui permane la piccola, Karen racconta: “Ho cercato di andare sulla scena (dell’attentato) sabato sera, ma non siamo riusciti ad avvicinarci. Ma sono andata questa mattina (Domenica) alle 06:00 solo per vedere com’era.
“Mi sento devastata. E’ incredibile che potesse accadere a mia figlia. Ero in un auto bomba io stesso quando avevo circa tre anni e mezzo in Hannahstown”
“Non posso credere che questo stia succedendo a lei … mi fa male questo stia accadendo anche a Lurgan”.
Ha poi aggiunto: “Penso che faccia star molto male anche lei”.
La madre continua a interrogarsi: “Perché questo, perché … ogni volta che vedrà un poliziotto ora anche lei penserà che potrebbe esserci qualcuno cattivo – che starà per fare qualcosa.”
Il padre, Cathal Hendron, ha spiegato che Lauren ha subito un forte trauma alla testa nell’esplosione e che è stata ricoverata in via precauzionale. Da sabato il gonfiore si è man mano dissolto.

Mother’s anger over Lurgan bomb (Newsletter)
A CATHOLIC mother has told how a dissident republican bomb which injured her 12-yearold
daughter invoked traumatic memories of being caught in an
IRA bomb nearly 40 years ago.
Karen Hendron, 39, said that she was “devastated” by the bomb which exploded in a steel bin, injuring her daughter, Lauren, and two other children in Lurgan on Saturday.
Mrs Hendron, who was caught up in an IRA car bomb in 1974 when she was aged three, said it had brought back terrible memories for her and her family.
Shaking and in tears, the mother-of-two told the News Letter that her daughter was in an awful state of shock, constantly crying and not able to understand what had happened.
“I tried to get down to the scene on Saturday night but we couldn’t get near it. But I went this morning (Sunday) at six o’clock just to see what it was like.
“I feel devastated. It’s unbelievable that it could happen to my daughter. I was in a car bomb myself when I was about three and a half in Hannahstown,” she said, describing how she still has a scar all the way along her leg from that blast.
“I can’t believe this is coming on her…it makes me sick that this is happening in Lurgan too.”
She added: “I think it has really affected her really badly too.
Both girls have been crying their eyes out. She just keeps asking questions about it.
“Why this, why that…everytime she sees a policeman now she thinks there might be bad boys about – that are going to do something.”
Lauren’s father, Cathal Hendron, described how his daughter had suffered a huge bump on the back of her head in the blast and had been taken to hospital as a precaution. However the swelling has since gone down.
The 41-year-old said that his daughter had nightmares after the bombing: “Normally on a Saturday that street is full. People walking up and down all the time. It’s unreal, thoughtless. It’s stupid just killing people – for what?”
Another of the children caught up in Saturday’s blast, 12-year-old Demi Maguire, sat in tears as she described how she and her friend were innocently swinging her two-year-old sister over road ramps when the bomb exploded.