The Five Demands

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Martin McGuinness’ niece caught up in Derry explosion (Belfast Telegraph)
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has hit out at “idiots” behind a bomb explosion in Londonderry, yards from the home of his niece and her young family.
Aisling Hutton’s three children were asleep when the device detonated across the street from their house in the Lecky Road area of the Brandywell at around 11pm on Thursday.
The senior Sinn Fein figure said the children had been left traumatised by the blast which could easily have claimed lives.
The explosion happened after masked gunmen forced their way into a house on the opposite side of the street and then threw the bomb.
No-one was injured but a number of homes were damaged in the blast, with windows smashed in bedrooms where children were asleep.
“I think it absolutely diabolical that there are still idiots within our society who believe it is sensible to go to an area like the Brandywell and place a bomb and threaten people’s lives,” said Mr McGuinness.
“This is a bomb that could quite easily have killed a number of people, particularly children.
“Her (Mrs Hutton’s) children were sleeping at the time and were wakened by this and were in hysterics for hours after it so I’ve just spoken to her on the phone and everybody in the area is just absolutely disgusted that there are still people within our society who believe that the use of violence represents a sensible way forward.”
Mrs Hutton heard the bang from inside the bathroom and later found her next-door neighbour’s window had been penetrated by a large piece of shrapnel.
A two-year-old boy, who had been on a sofa, narrowly escaped injury as the shrapnel tore through a curtain and lodged in the fireplace.
Mrs Hutton said her eldest daughter was left in tears.
“My one-year-old baby was in the living room with my husband. She had woken up and was brought downstairs and he was walking about with her to try and settle her. When I heard about my neighbours I just kept thinking ‘what if that had been my house?’. My husband was standing there with the baby. You just have to be thankful.”
A native of the Brandywell, Mrs Hutton said people in the area were extremely angry at what happened.
“There are community groups working hard to try and make this a better place and it’s not a bad area. Everybody looks out for each other and nobody wants this,” she said.
Meanwhile, the family of a two-year-old who also narrowly escaped injury in the bomb have spoken of their horror.
The little boy was asleep in a travel cot under a window in his grandparents’ home when an explosion occurred at the entrance to an upstairs flat, directly opposite the bomb at 11pm on Thursday.
His aunt Deirdre Killen and her mother were in the kitchen when the explosion went off.
“We were in the house and the next thing you knew there was a bang,” she said.
“We were very shocked then when we realised what it was and what had happened upstairs.
“Within 10 minutes the street was packed. The baby woke up shortly afterwards but he had slept through it.”
In an incident just moments earlier in the same area, two gunmen forced their way into the home of a young mother-of-three.
Police are investigating a possible link between the gunmen and the blast.
SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan said those behind the attack had “warped and violent egos”.
“It is no thanks to those who planted this device that we are not talking about the serious injury of infants or worse.”