County Derry Post

A Polish man is recovering in hospital after being stabbed in a knife attack in Dungiven.

The man was stabbed in the stomach as he tried to break up a fight at John T’s Bar on Dungiven’s Main Street on Saturday night.

The Good Samaritan had only recently moved to Dungiven from Poland.

The man, believed to be in his mid 20’s, was knifed after he went to break up a brawl involving up to 30 people attending a special event for foreign nationals in the pub.

 

A second man suffered a stab wound to his upper thigh and cuts to his back during the incident but has since been released from hospital.  

 

It is understood that while members of the Polish and Latvian communities were involved in the fight, it was sparked by a personal dispute.

 The man was rushed to Altnagelvin Hospital after the attack where he was last night described as “stable”.

The two men were attacked while attending a social evening organized by a local group, Glenshane Community Development Ltd.

 

Manager Mairead McCormack comforted the most seriously injured man as he waited for medical help to arrive.

 

“We hold evenings like this at various venues in Dungiven,” said Mairead.

 

“They are very popular and everyone looks forward to them. I was with the fellow who was stabbed as we waited for help. He was full conscious and talking. The incident was not motivated by racism but a symptom of our knife-carrying culture.”

 

The owner of John T’s Bar, Sean Millar, said he is totally shocked by the knife attack.

 “We have events like this on a regular basis and have Polish people working for us but have not had anything like this happen before. We never had any reason to think anything like this would happen.

“If we thought there would be problems we wouldn’t hold these nights.

“Once the incident happened the doormen acted swiftly, got the lights on and the place cleared out. My staff helped to assist the injured until an ambulance arrived.”

 A spokeswoman for the PSNI said they are still trying to establish a motive for the attack.