Children have nightmares after fireworks thrown at house

A Mullingar homeowner whose young children were left "extremely frightened" after youths discharged fireworks at their front door last weekend says that more need to be done to curtail ant-social behaviour.

On Friday evening, Rory Leavy and his family were relaxing at their home in Glenmore Wood on the Dublin Road when fireworks were discharged on their front door. The youth who discharged the fireworks while his friends looked on also banged hard on the Levys’ front window. The incident was caught on CCTV.

Mr Leavy told the Westmeath Examiner that the in recent weeks, there had been an increase in anti-social behaviour by a group of youths who congregate around Glenmore Wood/Petitswood and the car park of a nearby supermarket.

A member of the Glenmore Wood Residents Association, Mr Leavy said that he contacted the local Community Policing Unit as the incident had left his young children shaken.

"I don’t want to demonise teenagers because I think that they have been disproportionately affected by Covid, but when they start targeting my house a threshold has been crossed.

"We have two young kids (seven and two years old) who where extremely frightened by the latest ordeal. The seven-year-old has had nightmares since.

"It was not just an act of vandalism, but it was also criminal behaviour, as fireworks are illegal." Mr Leavy noted that local gardaí were "extremely sympathetic and obliging" when he got in touch with them. He believes that some of the youths who have been engaging in anti-social behaviour live nearby and could easily by identified.

"We moved to the property in 2020 and have wonderful neighbours here, but feel more action needs to be taken to curtail anti-social, indeed criminal, behaviour like this," he said.

"It’s a small group, in a small town. I am sure that their parents or schools could identify them and take it from there," he said.