One of the young people at the disco in the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown has described the harrowing sequence of events which unfolded at the venue around 9:30pm last night (Sunday).
A 17-year-old girl and two boys aged 16 and 17 died. A number of other teenagers have also been treated in hospital.
Two of the victims have been named locally as Lauren Bullock and Connor Currie. Connor’s GAA club Edendork has paid tribute to the young footballer, saying they are ‘deeply saddened and devastated’ at his death.
A tribute on Facebook said: “As a club and community, we are deeply saddened and devastated to hear of the tragic passing of our much loved and highly thought of player and member Connor Currie.
“Connor will forever be remembered with the greatest affection by all associated with our club and indeed the wider Edendork community.”
As a club and community, we are deeply saddened and devastated to hear of the tragic passing of our much loved and…
Posted by Edendork Gac on Monday, 18 March 2019
Lauren’s cheerleading colleagues have paid tribute to her:
Euphoria are absolutley devastated to say we lost one of our senior athletes Lauren Bullock in the tragedy in Cookstown…
Posted by Euphoria Allstar Cheerleading NI on Monday, 18 March 2019
Eyewitness:
“It started with pushing and shoving but everyone was still laughing and having a good time. Then the literal crushing started,” said Eimear Tallon, one of the young people at the venue.
“Two of my friends fell to the ground. I tried to pull them up but at that point there was no room for them to even come back up. So I started screaming at the top of my lungs:
“My friends are on the ground, move back!”
“My friends have fainted, move back!”
“My friends can’t breath, move back!”
– nothing. Not one bit of movement.”
Eimear described how she saw people laughing with no idea what was going on.
“At this point I thought my friends were going to die, I was standing up and I couldn’t breath so I couldn’t imagine how they felt. I was hysterically screaming for people to move but it was only the people around me who knew the seriousness,” she said.
Eimear also fell amid the commotion.
“With more and more pushing, I also fell. But the thing about me was that I wasn’t on the ground, I was on top of someone, and this person was on top of someone else. As I looked down I could see multiple bodies underneath me and as I looked up I could see multiple bodies on top of me. It was the most traumatic, frightening and stressful moment of my life,” she said.
“I was looking about for my friends and trying to keep my head up. As dramatic as it sounds, I closed my eyes for a little and accepted what was going to happen however, an elbow to my throat soon woke me up. People were scratching, biting and grabbing anything they could to pull themselves up to breath. I think that’s what really shows the seriousness of it all, people were literally fighting for their lives,” she said.
“It got to a point where even when I had my eyes open, I couldn’t see. It felt like this went on forever but eventually I felt bodies being dragged over me and beside me. It wasn’t the bouncers and it wasn’t the police, it was the young people in the line who pulled me out,” she said.
“My leg was caught underneath someone and my hair was caught somewhere else, my jeans were pulled down around my thighs and my jersey above my head but I was getting pulled out nonetheless. I lay on the ground and opened my eyes, I remember seeing some motionless legs, a few socks and shoes and then I was pulled up and brought away,” she explained.
Eimear rang her parents to tell them what had occurred at what was supposed to be a fun night out.
“These ‘people’ aren’t just ‘people’, they were young people, teenagers at 16/17 years old. They were only children.
“It could’ve been anyone,” she added.