Mullingar man lived next to Manchester suicide bomber

“I was probably walking by him going to and from work. It’s terrifying to know he was living right over there.”

A young Mullingar man has spoken of his shock when he realised that he lives “five seconds” from the Manchester apartment where the suicide bomber Salman Abedi spent his last days preparing for the horrific attack at Manchester Arena that killed 22 people and left dozens more injured.

Like his fellow Manchester residents, Bailey Waterhouse says that he is trying to return to normality after the May 22 attack by Abedi, when it emerged on Wednesday that the attacker had made the bomb in an apartment close to his own city centre home.

“I saw it [the police raid] on TV and then looked out and they were there. It was terrifying to know he was over there.

“When I realised the bomb factory was across the road, I felt dirty. I was probably walking by him on a daily basis. To plan something like that he would have been actively out. He had been eyeing up Canal Street [where Bailey works] the Friday before it happened. It’s awful.”

Mr Waterhouse, who moved to Manchester last September, had been on his way to the bar he works in when news of the attack first emerged.

Once it was confirmed that there had been a terrorist attack at the concert by Ariana Grande, he says that his first thoughts went to his friends who attended and thankfully emerged uninjured.

With Manchester city centre on lockdown, Bailey says that he and his friends congregated in his home and tried to come to terms with the tragic events that had just taken place.

“It was horrible, there were just sirens, police cars, helicopters, fire engines and people everywhere. We are about a five-minute walk from the venue and all we could hear was sirens.”

“You hear about it happening in London, but not Manchester. When I went to the shop to get a few things I saw a mother and a father cradling their two children, who wearing Ariana Grande T-shirts and they were all crying.”

Although it will take the people of Manchester time to recover, Mr Waterhouse says that he has been heartened by how the attack has “pulled everyone together”.

“It’s amazing to see the solidarity and how people have come together. If one positive has come out of it, it has shown how amazing the community is and how quickly it came together to help those in need.”

Mr Waterhouse, who offered to put up concert goers who were unable to return home following the attack, believes the best way of defeating terrorism is not succumbing to fear. That is what they want. I am not going to let them win. I will not run. I have made a life here. It is such a tragedy but I will not be run out of somewhere I call home now.”