A HAND grenade thrown into a Co Clare house on Saturday morning while a family of eight slept failed to detonate because it was old, but could have caused loss of life if it had exploded, gardaí said.
In what is being treated as the most sinister and worrying development in an ongoing feud involving members of a settled Traveller family in Ennis, the device was hurled into the house at Childers Road in Ennis at around 4am after a glass panel near the front door was smashed. No one was injured in the attack.
The family had a lucky escape after the “viable device” – an old grenade from Russia or Eastern Europe – was tossed into the hall, landing in the kitchen. The six children, five girls and a boy ranging from seven years to 15 months, were asleep with parents Julieann (32) and Christopher McDonagh (34) at the time. Gardaí were notified at 4.15am.
The family notified the gardaí of a “suspicious device” in the kitchen, and the house was evacuated, along with 10 others nearby. The area was sealed off and the Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team from Cork was called in to deal with the device.
Mr McDonagh said: “Myself and my wife and six children were asleep when I heard noise of glass breaking. I went downstairs and saw the broken window but there was no one around – but some people said they saw two people running away. I called the cops and they came and found the grenade on the floor in the kitchen. I am not the instigator of any of this, but I want it to stop.”
Ms McDonagh, who is expecting another child, said: “We don’t want to see any retaliation for this. It was very frightening to have to be taken out of your house like that, not knowing what is going to happen. We want the guards to stop all this before someone gets killed.”
The grenade was removed by army personnel to a local quarry where a controlled explosion was carried out. It is believed the pin had been pulled before it was thrown, but the striker pin inside had malfunctioned.
Supt John Scanlan, Ennis, said: “There is no justification for this kind of incident and we would appeal to anybody who was in the area in the early hours of Saturday morning to contact gardaí in Ennis in confidence if they saw anything suspicious.”
A number of people have already been before the courts in relation to the ongoing violent dispute, which Ennis District Court was told “has its genesis in an alleged marital break-up”.
Last week a house was petrol-bombed near the scene of Saturday’s incident. There have been reports of shots being fired in the area and a man being injured in a hit-and-run. In March, the armed Regional Support Unit based in Limerick was deployed to the area after an outbreak of violence.