Father's shock over pipe bomb find
AN eight-year-old boy was fortunate to escape uninjured after he carried a viable pipe bomb into his primary school.
And the father of P5 pupil Brendan Shannon said the consequences, had the device exploded, "just don't bear thinking about".
Gerard Shannon, 46, said when police confirmed it was a viable device "it put into context just how awful it could have been".
Outrage over 'disgusting and unjustifiable' attack
St Comgall's Primary School in Antrim – a 400-pupil school on the Ballymena Road – had to be initially evacuated and later closed on Monday after the youngster carried the device into the school building to show a teacher just before 8.30am.
There was widespread anger at the incident last night.
Mr Shannon said: "Brendan is just a natural wee inquisitive eight-year-old boy who doesn't go to school on a Monday morning to see if any bombs have been left lying about.
"There could have been 30 kids gathered round it, looking at it.
"I am still in shock and thinking of what the worst could have been.
"But it doesn't bear thinking about, it just doesn't bear thinking about.
"The relief that Brendan is okay has started to turn into anger and I am not an angry person by nature – but that was left at a school with 400 pupils."
The pupil told the News Letter that he was just making his way round the school on his bicycle when he saw a golden object.
"It looked like a screw, upside down, and had wires coming out of it," said Brendan.
"It wasn't really heavy at all. It was light. Then I showed it to a
teacher. I wasn't scared at all."
A short time later, a phone warning was made to the BBC regarding
another security alert at St Joseph's Primary School on the Greystone Road in the town.
Again pupils, including a nursery section, were evacuated to a nearby
parish hall before being sent home. After an extensive search of the premises by police, nothing was found.
PSNI area commander for Antrim, Simon Walls, last night told of his "disgust at the cowards" involved in the alerts.
"What is very important to emphasise is that an eight-year-old picked up a viable pipe bomb and that bomb could have exploded and caused serious injury or worse," said chief inspector Walls.
"There was no warning provided to the police or to anyone else at that stage."
He said those who planted the device "have shown contempt and disregard for the safety of some of our more junior members of society, including five-year-old children in their first week at school".
He added: "To target the general public is never acceptable by any means but to take away the secure feelings of innocent children and to put them at risk like this is beyond despicable. It is by sheer
good fortune that we are not dealing with a severely injured child right now."
Mr Walls declined to comment on whether any group had claimed responsibility for the device, adding: "At this stage there are a number of lines of inquiry."
He said the events had made him "more determined than ever that we will, with the help of our community colleagues and local residents,
bring these cowardly criminals to justice".
Principal of St Comgall's, Hilary Cush, said he was outraged at what
had happened.
"It's absolutely crazy," he said.
"It's unbelievable that innocent children should be caught up in something like this."
Parish Priest of St Comgall's, Father Sean Emerson, said: "It is
one of those sad things in life that someone would have such disregard
for the safety and innocence of children."
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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