The £2.5 million new Museum of Free Derry under construction in the Bogside
A despicable arson attack on the site of the new Museum of Free Derry shows “total disrespect” for victims, a Bloody Sunday relative has said.
A fire was started when the building was broken into sometime between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
Thugs then set fire to building material on the premises.
The museum is located in the Bogside, close to where some of the 14 victims of Bloody Sunday were killed in 1972.
John Kelly, whose brother, Michael, was murdered by British paratroopers, said the damage to the building could have been a lot worse.
“I looked at it and thought: “Good God, if that had really caught fire, we could have had an explosion”.
The £2.4 million construction of the Glenfada Park museum began in 2015 and is now close to completion.
Mr Kelly has been working on the project for the past 10 years.
“It shows total disrespect for my brother and all those who died during Bloody Sunday and all the others who lost their lives in that period of time, total disrespect for our family members and their memory,” he said.
“The police told me there was a fire and it was in the back store, that’s where we have the gas mains and electronic equipment as well.
“The building is next door to people’s houses and everyone could have been affected by it. It didn’t travel any further, thank God, and we still have an intact building,” Mr Kelly added.
Building site foreman Dermott McGrotty said they have now improved security at the site.
“They had to climb over an eight foot fence to get in, so overnight security has now been arranged and we’re making sure the doors are well secured.”
The Northern Ireland Fire Service is treating the fire as deliberate.
Detectives from the PSNI’s Reactive and Organised Crime Branch based at Strand Road have appealed for anyone with information about who carried out the arson attack to contact them on the 101 number.
Tags: