Couple relieved after petrol bomb escape

In 2006, Christina and Hugh Nevin were awarded a Tidy Garden certificate by the D"Alton Park Residents" Association, and even today - despite the glass broken in the porch and the kitchen window broken in the July 29 riots at D"Alton Park, and the soot mark running up the wall as a result of the petrol bomb thrown at the house last week, evidence of the couple"s pride in their home is there.Inside too, the house is pristine. Or it was, until the travellers" feud fired off in July.'Look at the floor: there are lumps gone out of the tiles from the stones they threw in through the window,' she says, while husband Hugh points out the puncture holes in the leather of their sofa, cut by glass as the window broke.The Nevin couple are one of three Nevin families living in D"Alton Park, and there are other Nevins at other locations around the town.But while many are pointing the finger at the Nevins, Hugh - who says his family keep to themselves - says that his family are not involved in the feud, but have had their house targeted because of their name.'We"re not ashamed of our name. We are proud to be Nevins, but the Nevins get the blame for everything. But it is not all the Nevins" fault. In each side there"s a group of maybe two to three, that will flare up the flame,'says Christina.The names cropping up in reports around town of involvement in the current feud are of well-known families: the McDonaghs, the Dinnegans, the Maguires and the Nevins.Ironically, says Hugh, who is adamant that he wishes things would quieten down, many of the feuding families are related.'My first cousins are McDonaghs,' he says.Contact has, he admits, been limited between himself and his cousins over the past few years as the tensions soared, but he has no problem with them.What is angering both Christine and Hugh, however, is the damage that the feud is doing to the image of Travellers.About three years ago, the couple took an equality action against a hostelry which refused to serve them because they were Travellers.Hugh, a non-drinker, was deeply offended and humiliated by the incident, and recalls that after being asked to leave, the door of the pub seemed a long way off.The couple were awarded €350 apiece - but because the incident was about equality, they refused to keep the money, and they went to the bank and signed it over to charity. The Westmeath Examiner saw the receipt at the time, and the charity involved subsequently wrote to the couple to thank them.Now, says Christine, Travellers are worse off than they were even back then. Recently, the day before their wedding, a young Traveller couple had their hotel cancel their booking. It was just days after the D"Alton Park riot.'But who could blame them?' Christine says, referriing to the hotel"s decision..'That young bride had to go home to her own house and cut the cake there,' says Christine. 'And she could not have a first dance with her husband'.Another young couple who are marrying shortly have been unable to get anyone to take their booking for the reception.'I wish it would all stop,' says Hugh, adding that there had been some optimism after members of the Travelling families met in Navan about three weeks ago, with Gardaí, and signed a peace agreement.Now, that appears to have bitten the dust.In the meanwhile, the Nevins are sitting in their soot-blackened kitchen, with a polythene sheet covering the window, pockmarks on the floor, and holes in their sofa.'The guards have been very supportive of us,' say the couple.It was Hugh who first noticed that the house was on fire, and in the early hours of the morning, the family found themselves outside their home, awaiting the fire brigade. There were seven people asleep in the house at the time. That was at about 3.30 in the morning.Hugh had pulled down the curtains, which were ablaze, in a bid to stop the fire spreading, and Christine and son David went back in, and found, to their relief, that they were able to put the fire out with four or five basins of water.But the couple, who more than freely admit that there are troublemakers on every side of the feud, are worried about what could have happened.And they"re worried what may happen among the Travellers in the future if the feuding continues.There"s a fear among all Travellers that one day, there will be a death.No-one is saying it, but everyone knows that that will open up a whole new war.