'Actions have consequences', says walker injured after Newry firework attack

A retired teacher who was injured after jumping out of the way of a firework thrown at her Newry walking group hopes there is a lesson to be learned from her ordeal.

Vernetta Hillen had just joined a social walking group which had been set up to get people out for their daily steps and a chat together in safety.

She avoided the firework which witnesses say was thrown by a young person from Jennings Park in The Meadows area, and she fell onto the road while jumping out of the way.

Thankfully nothing was broken, but she said she was in a great deal of pain, and doctors told her that the inflammation meant she required medicine to prevent infection.

"You relive it all the time. I did relive the actual firework, but it was the fall," she told this reporter.

"The fall when you're an adult, and certainly when you get to a certain age... it's terrifying. You don't know if you're going to get up in one piece.

"Thankfully, I did, But that is it, it's the fear that it actually put into you, and that's what I've been reliving."

She added: "Remember that there are always consequences to your actions.

"It's something I remember teaching all the time. The consequences to the action the other night are very simple.

"I have ended up spending a full day in bed recuperating, I have spent a full day between the doctor, the hospital and X-rays.

"Nobody wants to have to do that."

A keen adventurer, she does a lot of mountaineering and kayaking so is very fit and she said she almost felt relieved it happened to her and not somebody else.

"I know people who have maybe the beginnings of osteoporosis, for example, women in particular," she said.

"And I know a lot of women personally, that if they had had that fall, they would not have been getting up from the road without a break, if they got up at all."

After this violent incident, it transpired that there have been countless other examples of anti-social behaviour, with some locals reporting that they feel under siege.

Briege McEvoy is the founder of the walking group, Conor's Clan.

It came about to help encourage a sense of community post-Covid in memory of her son Conor who died with coronavirus in August 2021, aged just 23.

Mrs McEvoy said she has not experienced any other incidents on the walks herself, but now, a number of Meadows residents have told her about ongoing issues they have faced.

"People are saying that they are afraid to come out of their homes after 5 o'clock in the evening," she revealed.

"I had a lady who is afraid to come out, even with her dog, because she fears for the dog's safety as well as her own.

"I've been told that there's been fireworks being put through their letterboxes. I've been told that there are fireworks thrown into the local shop and they closed the door, and they don't care who it hits or who gets injured.

"So there's a lot of danger right there. People need to take notice.

"Just don't close your door and forget about it because somebody is seriously going to get hurt."

Caring Coins Community Cafe is trying to do something about this.

They are launching a "Youth Committee" this week to organise events for and by young people.

Co-founder Kerrie Havern explained: "We have already 14 students from Our Lady's, Sacred Heart, St Joseph's, St Paul's, The Abbey and St Colemans who are going to come on board and help us form a junior committee and they're going to be tackling things that are relevant to them.

"We're hoping that within the first months of the Junior Committee being up and running that we will be hosting a teenager cafe here in Caring Coins Community Cafe, which will run weekly and it would be an opportunity for the teenagers to run the cafe themselves.

"Obviously, there will be a bit of supervision by some of our senior committee, but we want to empower them to provide services that they want.

"So for the likes of some of the students we've already spoken to, they would like to see things like a battle of the bands talent competition, movie nights, pizza nights...

"They're talking about bringing in the likes of Women's Aid to talk to 7th years about gaslighting for them going to the university.

"We're hoping that the junior committee will be self-led and they'll be coming up with their own projects and hopefully that will be enticing a lot of the children off the streets and just by giving them that's somewhere safe and warm to come to and be themselves, enjoy themselves and do it in a safe manner."

"They're clear that they're lacking structure, and a lot of children actually crave structure.

"So we're hoping that the structures that we put in place that are led by their peers, that will be helpful to get them and off the streets," she said.

Volunteer Kerrie said she grew up in the Meadows estate.

"I know a lot of really, really good people still there," she said.

"And the one thing I will have definitely said that within our work in caring coins, we see the best of people in the Meadows and we see that they want their community back as much as we want to help them get that."

The PSNI said they are aware of the firework being thrown at Mrs Hillen last week, but they are not currently investigating.

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