Roscommon man recounts evening of horror in Liverpool

Frenchpark native Joe Gilligan was among the hundreds of thousands of Liverpool supporters whose day of celebration on Monday in the English city turned to horror.

Joe, who lives in Ballinafad Co. Sligo, travelled over last weekend to attend Liverpool’s final game of the season on Sunday and stayed on for the team's Premier League victory parade in the city centre on Monday.

Despite the rain that fell, Joe and thousands of fans enjoyed the parade which celebrated Liverpool’s latest premiership title victory.

“We headed to the Strand area near the docks waiting for the parade bus to come. We arrived there about 4 o’clock and the city was absolutely thronged with people. There must have been up to a million people there yesterday.

"The parade was brilliant and there was a lot of jubilation as you can imagine,” said, Joe who spoke to the Roscommon Herald earlier today from Liverpool.

The Roscommon man went back to his hotel about 6 p.m. for a change of clothes when news started to filter through something bad had happened in the city.

“I was staying on the seventh floor of the hotel and from the window, I went to take a photo of the people coming down the street to have it for again.

“The next thing I saw from the hotel room was about twenty police running very fast and I knew there was something up. They were trying to get through the crowd. I didn’t really know at the stage if it was something to do with the parade.

“When I saw the air ambulance then, I thought something definitely was after happening here.

“My friend Aidan Cunningham who was in Liverpool with me was down the other side. He texted me wondering if there was something after happening where I was and if I was ok. I went down then to see what was happening,” he recalled.

When he got to street level, the devastation caused by a car hitting dozens of pedestrians became immediately clear to him.

“It happened only about a minute’s walk from the hotel. It was the next street over from me and I saw one ambulance driver picking up a young lad, there was something wrong with his foot. Casualties were being moved from the street into a hotel.

“I saw another other girl sitting on the ground. The ambulance people had a blanket around her to keep her warm. There were cops with guns there. There were unmarked cars.

“There was a lot of people still coming from the parade. They didn’t know what was happening. There was a lot of confusion, a lot of shock. I was talking to three lads who witnessed it and they said the car just missed them by inches.

“A lot of people who witnessed it were frightened and shocked. They didn’t know was going on and afraid of what was going to happen next.

“Those who witnessed it said a car drove up and rammed into loads of people. Everybody started to think that this was a terrorist attack or something like that.

“I tried to go down that street where that car went down yesterday and the roads there were closed. The county council had 'road closed' red signs up everywhere so I don't know what happened and how that car got down there.

“There were no taxis available and there were problems with the trains as well so I had to walk about two miles last night to get back to the hotel. The streets beside the hotel were sealed off and I went to three or four different police lanes and they turned me back,” said Joe.

The lifelong Liverpool supporter, who was among a large contingent of Irish people who travelled over for the match, said there was an eerie feeling in the city this morning.

“The city is in complete shock. You could see the mood changing last night. It started off as a joyous day but this tragedy has overshadowed the parade for everyone,” he said.

Joe, who runs the popular Cross Bar in Ballinameen, flew back today from the English city.

Following the ramming incident, dozens of people were taken to hospital, including children, and several have suffered serious injuries.

Merseyside Police confirmed that a 53-year-old white British man had been arrested.