Police attacked during Halloween revelry in Crossmaglen

Police were attacked by petrol bombs and fireworks during the Halloween festivities in Crossmaglen on Friday night -  the first such outbreak of violence in the district in a considerable time.

The attack began around 9.00pm when a gang of youths turned on the vehicles which were parked in the Square and began pelting them with fireworks and other missiles.

Police followed some of the gang as they dispersed and recovered a crate of bottles that had been gathered for making further petrol bombs.

Inspector David Beck, Sector Commander, said it was “extremely disappointing” that a minority seemed intent on putting lives at risk.  He appealed for anyone with information to contact the PSNI.

Sinn Fein councillor for the area, Terry Hearty advised those involved in the night’s disturbances to think about what they were involved in.

“Those involved in the disturbances need to realise just how dangerous their actions were. They were putting themselves and the people around them at risk.  These activities hurt only the community of Crossmaglen,” he said.

SDLP Councillor Geraldine Donnelly said she thought that the bad old days of lawlessness and violence had been over for good, but Friday night’s attack showed that there were still people hell bent on bringing down the good name of Crossmaglen, especially at a time when major efforts were being made to promote the entire area as a commercial and tourist attraction.

Cullyhanna

The wanton destruction all in the name of Halloween festivities continued in Cullyhanna.

A vacant house in the centre of the village was totally destroyed and public phone box nearby has been damaged beyond repair after it was set alight.

Contents of the recycling banks were removed and strewn across the area.

Telephone lines were down when a telecommunication network box was set alight and burnt out and  BT engineers spend considerable time on Saturday attempting to restore the telephone network to the area.

It was also necessary for the Fire Service to revisit the village when the remains of the previous night’s bonfire were still smouldering in the middle of the road.

Sinn Fein representative of the area and Mayor of Newry and Mourne, Colman Burns condemned the actions of the vandals saying that they were inflicting suffering on their own community.

“There is huge disappointment in the area regarding what happened on Halloween night.  So much good community work goes on in Cullyhanna, as in other areas, all year but unfortunately a tiny minority attempt to wreck all that work in the space of a couple of hours.   I have no doubt that those responsible are not all local and that people from outside Cullyhanna were also involved.”

He said that facilities like the telephone kiosk and recycling banks were there for the benefit of the area’s residents and it was very unfortunate that a few hooligans should attempt to destroy these valuable resources.