Boys' mother regrets not leaving the Ballymoney loyalist estate

The mother of the three boys who died when their home was petrol-bombed last Sunday has said she feels guilty about not moving…

The mother of the three boys who died when their home was petrol-bombed last Sunday has said she feels guilty about not moving her family away from the predominantly loyalist estate in Ballymoney, Co Antrim.

Ms Christine Quinn (29), herself a Catholic, said the family had gone to England once but moved back because the boys - deliberately not brought up as Catholics - wanted to be with their friends. She does not believe her sons' deaths will change anything in the North.

"They were just boys, they were into everything, but everybody liked them. Richard was a devil, but he had a big heart. Jason was a good wee one, Mark was a good wee one. They were just boys." Her eldest son Lee (13) survived the sectarian attack.

In a television interview to be broadcast this morning, Ms Quinn described the inferno. Her last memories of the boys were of them shouting when she woke in the early hours of Sunday and realised the house was full of smoke.

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The boys had gone out helping with the Twelfth celebrations in the estate the previous night. She had not gone herself, she said.

"I sat up awake until everybody was in and went to bed about three o'clock," she said. "I woke up to smoke. The kids were in their bedroom. I heard them and I went to them and they weren't there."

Ms Quinn said little about how she jumped from the building, helped by neighbours, and realised that the three children were still inside. Her neighbours' support since had meant a lot.

She had not raised the boys at Catholics because she wanted them "to make up their own minds", she said. They went to Protestant schools to be with their friends.

When the interviewer said many Orangemen and loyalists claimed the community had nothing to do with the attack, Ms Quinn said: "It has everything to do with it." Asked if she blamed them, she nodded. "It is everybody else that suffers every year because of them. It's the Catholics that suffer. It hurts."

Asked about the standoff at Drumcree, she said firmly: "They should not get down that road and I hope they don't get down."

Ms Quinn said she "couldn't understand the mentality" of people who attacked others because of their religion. Asked if she planned to go back to the family's home in Ballymoney, she said simply: "Never."

Asked if she believed the deaths would change anything in Northern Ireland, she replied "no" in an almost inaudible voice.

Asked what it had been like living on the estate in the past few years, she said: "It hasn't been easy. We just tried and got on, sticking to what you are doing and just stick with each other."

She had learned that some neighbours had received bullets through the post, she said. "I never got one, I thought we were all right."

Asked if she understood why they had died, the boys' grandmother, Mrs Irene Quinn, said: "No, we didn't deserve this."

Ms Christine Quinn admitted she was angry at some of the people in the estate and members of the Protestant community - "because it's their fault". She had no intention, however, of leaving Northern Ireland, she said.

She said the funerals on Tuesday "was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life."

Asked if she felt guilty in any way about the deaths of the boys, she said: "I do. I wish I hadn't stayed there."

Lee was asked if he saw any difference between Protestant and Catholic boys that he knew. "I don't see any - they are all just human beings," he said.