NEIGHBOURS spoke of their frustration and anger after they discovered that an 84 year old woman had been dragged from her bed early yesterday morning by two intruders and left lying in a pool of blood. She was recovering from her ordeal at a rest home in Cork last night.
Ms Rose Hyland suffered cuts to her hands and legs and lost skin on both knees when her assailants entered her terraced home at Dublin Street, Blackpool, Cork, from a field at the rear, and demanded money.
Ms Hyland, who lives alone, was unaware that her home had been broken into until the two men entered her bedroom and threatened her.
Neighbours said that when she told the intruders there was no money in the house the men dragged her in her nightgown from the bed. They ransacked the house and left when they could not find any money.
Ms Hyland was born in the small terraced house, one of three adjoining houses in the first part of the terrace. Yesterday her neighbour, Mr Denis Crean, told The Irish Times that he and Ms Hyland had arranged that if she was in trouble she would knock on the dividing wall.
Mr Crean said he had gone to bed about 12.30 a.m. and was reading when he heard a "banging" on the wall.
"I knew it was Ms Hyland because that was the arrangement we had made. I jumped out of bed in my pyjamas and went to her front door. I called out, `Are you all right, Ms Hyland?' and I heard the faint reply, `I can't get up, I'm on the floor. Two men have attacked me.'"
"I didn't want to break in the door as she was lying just inside," he said, so he telephoned the Garda who "arrived within minutes".
The gardai got into Ms Hyland's from the rear, "which is the way the raiders got in", he said.
"There was blood under her but luckily her face was not marked. Her hands were scratched and there was skin missing from her legs. We got her standing before the ambulance arrived, and she was able to walk with some difficulty. She's a very private, quiet sort of person, and she was really shocked by what happened, I felt very sorry for her."
Mr Crean said that he had read about the attack on another elderly Cork woman, Ms Winnie O'Keeffe (81), last January and was appalled at the extent of her injuries.
"We never thought that something like it would happen next door. It's hard to believe that it happened here. When an attack like this occurs so close to home, the shock is all the worse. Afterwards, we were unable to sleep for the rest of the night," he added.
As gardai took fingerprints from Ms Hyland's home yesterday, a number of Blackpool residents said two men with English accents had been seen knocking on doors in the area during the day. Mr Hyland said he heard a knock on his door at 4 p.m. but there was no one there.
It is understood that an elderly man in the nearby Fair Hill area was alerted to intruders at 7 a.m. yesterday morning when his dog started barking. The intruders ran off.
Ms Hyland was released from hospital yesterday after treatment for her injuries. A hospital spokeswoman said that she was very withdrawn and traumatised following the attack. She said it was decided on medical advice that Ms Hyland should go to a rest home for at least a week.
Mr Donie O'Leary, the chairman of the Blackpool Community Association, said yesterday that the latest attack had once again exposed the need to have more gardai on the streets.
"The whole community is appalled at what happened. We must have more gardai on our streets. That's the only way this kind of thing is going to be stopped. People are calling out for action both at local and national level, and it's about time the authorities heard the call," he added.