THE woman who was beaten by masked men at her home in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, early yesterday has denied the attack had anything to do with her son driving stolen cars or that it was a punishment beating.
Ms Catherine Duignan, who is originally from Galway and has four other sons, said: "I would rather not say what it was about."
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday in her mid terrace house in the vast Whitestown estate, she said: "I have done nothing wrong. I keep to myself but I get on with my neighbours. If it was a punishment beating, why did they hit me? Why did they smash my finger? I'm a good neighbour," she stressed.
She said two of her sons had served sentences for being in a stolen car "but they have had their punishment".
However, a number of neighbours on the road have no sympathy for the family. One neighbour said she was afraid to let her children out because of the number of stolen cars being driven at speed in the area.
Her husband said, however: "It was wrong that she was beaten up, but people have put up with too much. The guards can do nothing and people are taking the law into their own hands."
A number of neighbours declined to talk but one said he had no problems with the family. "They have done me no harm."
Detectives investigating the case said they have not thus far identified any suspects in the attack and are keeping an open mind about who might have been involved. They have not ruled out subversive activity but, according to gardai, it is too early to say who might be responsible.
"The young fellow has prison convictions for joyriding. He is a self confessed joyrider but says he hasn't been involved in that for some time."
Ms Duignan said she was watching television with her 19 year old son at about 2.30 a.m. when the attack happened. Two other sons were walking their girlfriends home, she said, when the three men, wearing balaclavas, pushed in the door of her house.
"They smashed in my windows, they smashed the television which I only got brand new a week ago. They smashed up my coffee table. They went into the kitchen and the chip pan was on top of the cooker. They poured the grease from the chip pan all over the kitchen," she said.
"We were in the sitting room watching television when they came in with balaclavas. I must have stood up. One of them hit me on the forehead with a baseball bat and threw me against the wall. I passed out for a time," said Ms Duignan.
She moved her arm and hand which were bandaged. "I don't remember when they hit my hand but they didn't just break my finger, they smashed it. Then they started on him," she said, pointing to her son sitting in the armchair, a pair of crutches beside him. "They bashed him on the head and about the legs."
Her son, who did not want to be identified, said: "I'm shocked. It lasted about three or four minutes. They hit me on the head with a baseball bat. The one who was hitting me shouted at me joyrider. That's all I remember him saying."
The unemployed teenager said he had served a year for being in a stolen car. "This wasn't for joyriding. I haven't been involved in joyriding for three years."
Ms Duignan added: "I'm separated. If I wasn't on my own they wouldn't have come here like that. I just want to get out of this area. I'd rather sleep rough than stay here any longer."
A local councillor condemned the attack on the Duignan family as wrong and said it would not resolve the "deadly menace of so called joyriding". Mr Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party said such attacks were counter productive.
"A spate of car thefts and reckless forays into housing estates recently is causing justifiable anger and grave worry, particular, for the safety of children.
He said that urgent action was necessary but punishment style beatings by a "few self appointed individuals are not the answer to the consistent neglect of the problem by Government and authorities".
Calling for targeted and sustained intervention by social agencies in families with behavioural problems, he also urged "democratic community action to bring home to those who are causing problems that their activities cannot be tolerated".
He said legislation should be implemented allowing persistent offenders to be evicted from council houses.
