{"id":267601,"date":"2026-01-28T03:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/267601\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:12:09","slug":"children-screaming-in-fear-as-derry-sectarian-attack-forces-family-out-of-home-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/267601\/","title":{"rendered":"Children \u201cscreaming in fear\u201d as Derry sectarian attack forces family out of home \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A family targeted in a sectarian attack in Derry<\/a> have spoken of the \u2018absolute terror\u2019 they felt as their home and car were damaged on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

The family of five have been forced out of their home, which has been specially kitted out for their eldest child who is receiving palliative care. The attack saw a window smashed at their home and two windows smashed in their car as well as paint thrown at their car and front door. <\/p>\n

The attack happened in the waterside area, at a home in the Ebrington Oaks social housing development.<\/a> The development has only been recently occupied.<\/p>\n

The homes in the area are fairly new, and house people from both catholic and protestant backgrounds. <\/p>\n

\"‘It’s<\/a>\"PSNI<\/a><\/p>\n

Three young children were in the house at the time with Father Darian Moore (33). <\/p>\n

Mr Moore usually works evenings but was in the house with the children. He was with his youngest 1-year-old son Ruaidhr\u00ed in the kitchen. His eldest, Tiernan (5) was playing with two-year-old Fiadh, when they heard a loud bang and came running into the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish New<\/a>s following the attack, Mr Moore said the children came into him screaming in fear.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe wee ones started screaming \u2018what was that what was that\u2019. They were really scared; they\u2019re only five and two. The kids haven\u2019t been back to house since.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy eldest is getting tested for autism, he has a condition called pulmonary hypertension which is not curable. His granny is away to Australia; he\u2019s used to her being here and he\u2019s getting tested for autism so he\u2019s already a bit out of routine. So, we already have all that stress and then this here happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChloeChloe Rutherford (28) and Darian Moore (33) <\/p>\n

His partner Chloe Rutherford (28) is protestant, with Darian and the children being Catholic. He said he knows it was a sectarian attack as the threats started over a week ago.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThey\u2019ve been around the house since last Sunday. There were verbal threats made that they were coming to get my car, they\u2019d call me a Fenian b******.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince last Sunday, I\u2019ve been up every night in fear. We didn\u2019t know if there would be a petrol bomb or something. I\u2019m worried there will be a delayed reaction from Ruaidhr\u00ed because he does understand what happened, but he\u2019s not mentioned it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely terrifying. I would fully understand if we were out terrorising or whatever but between Chloe and we go to work, look after the wee ones, and go to work. I do night shifts she does day shifts. The people in this community they\u2019ve nothing bad to say about us. We keep ourselves to ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been round here for four years, and we\u2019ve never had a day of bother. This house was adapted for Tiarnan\u2019s disabilities. So, we are going to have to move now and find something this what we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family targeted in a sectarian attack in Derry have spoken of the \u2018absolute terror\u2019 they felt as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1115,7726,42,43,131554,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-267601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-derry","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sectarian","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}