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Leanne Evans was only 14 when her father was murdered.
erry evans (43) had just realized his lifelong ambition to own his own boutique.
Then, one afternoon, Republican paramilitaries entered his new premises and shot him dead.
Until recently, this horrific incident would have been news for Leanne’s three children.
For years she had kept it in mind as young people grew up in post-Good Friday Northern Ireland.
Now, however, the fitness instructor – who is approaching the same age as his father when he was shot – fears that the violence of the past will return.
And uncomfortably close to home too.
A recent despicable message, posted to one of Glengormley’s wife’s sons on Snapchat, read: “Your grandma got what he deserved.”
“This is the sort of thing that is happening with children living near interface areas these days,” Leanne told the Belfast Telegraph.
“They use online forums to organize sectarian clashes, when when I was young if things like this happened it was through phone calls and word of mouth in communities.”
And it’s a worrying novelty for people like Leanne, whose family has been devastated by the Troubles and who fear to come back after a generation of relative peace.
Concern over a possible united Ireland, the culmination of the controversial Northern Ireland protocol, the new sword-rattling between local politicians and the growing chasm between nationalist and Unionist ideals are now being played out in the streets by politicians. people too young to remember or appreciate the significance of the historic 1998 peace accord.
April this year saw the worst riots in years in Belfast’s Lanark Way neighborhood – and Newtownabbey, not far from where Leanne and her family live.
“There has been continuous fighting between young people of different religions,” she said.
“The kids organized this on social media and hundreds of them get together to brawl on Friday and Saturday nights.
“It’s really scary. This has been going on since the start of the pandemic, when they all locked themselves up. “
She added, “My biggest fear is that one of my children will be drawn into all of these religious things.”
Concern over a return to the dark days prompted Leanne to speak publicly for the first time about what happened to her father.
The father of five was shot twice by gunmen from the INLA at his new fishing tackle store at the Northcott Center in Glengormley on April 25, 1994 – one of nine victims of sectarian violence in eight days only.
Mr Evans, who lived in the neighboring Queen’s Park estate, was secretary of the First Glengormley Linfield Supporters Club and a member of the Orange Order.
In an attempt to justify the shooting, the INLA alleged their victim was in the UDA, but the loyalist organization never claimed him as a member.
“He had only opened his store a week earlier,” recalls Leanne.
“My mother kept me and my siblings safe from all of this. She wanted to protect us. I was always too scared to even google it.
The 41-year-old businesswoman however remembers vividly what life was like in the darkest hours before the new dawn.
“The Troubles were really fierce at that time,” she said.
“I remember the paramilitaries just going to each other’s communities and choosing someone because of their religion.
“I was very scared to leave the house.”
News of Mr Evans’ death came through a local school warden, who told him he had been shot.
“We walked to where it happened, but they wouldn’t let us in,” said Leanne, who was at school when it happened.
“My mother was in terrible shape.
After the tragedy, Mr Evans’ widow Elizabeth, now 70, quit her old job at a bar and got a job as a caregiver. She also raised her five children on her own.
“She was so strong; she kept us busy, took us to youth clubs and wherever we needed to go, ”said Leanne, a former student of Glengormley High School.
“She put us in a bubble of safety.
“It’s only now that we’re coming home, as we get older and approach the age of my father when he died. He was so young when this happened to him.
Leanne only told her own children about their grandfather’s death last year. And she stressed that she had always tried to protect them from bigotry.
“It worries me that some adults these days send their children to fight for religion,” she said.
“The people who should know better are the younger puppeteers. I would like to try to fix this.
“I’m just one person, but I’m speaking out now because I want the teens here to realize that if you keep fighting and it grows into adulthood, someone will eventually be seriously injured or killed. “
She added: “It’s a real story, but they don’t see it. They will only realize it when something happens to them like it has happened to us, and then it will be too late.
Leanne’s fervent hope for a better future in her region is embedded in the cross-community philosophy of the gymnasium she founded in 2015.
“I first worked from home; I built a log cabin and invited moms to my backyard and let their kids sit in my living room, ”said the former beautician.
“A year later I found a mobile unit across from Glengormley High School. I had sold a house the year before and instead of buying a new one, I put all my money into it.
“Mothers started coming to me, and it kind of moved on really quickly.”
She then moved into part of the Portland Avenue building that now houses Fit Moms & Kids, and expanded during the pandemic by acquiring an adjacent building.
The gym has been a labor of love for Leanne for the past six years; remarkably, she never took a dime in earnings.
“All my savings for the house are still in the building, but people are starting to pay us for memberships, so I hope to eventually make a living from it,” she said.
But it hasn’t been a walk in the park for Leanne, whose gym almost closed due to financial pressures a few years ago.
“My savings were depleted and we had no financial support from any funding source, so I was using all my own money,” she recalls.
“NICVA [the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action] helped me gain charitable status – it took 18 months and it wasn’t easy – and that’s how we ended up staying open. I’m so glad we did.
She added: “Now we have the support of Halifax, the National Lottery and the Council, so things are starting to get less stressful. I’m really glad we stayed open.
Currently, the gym has eight volunteers and there are 50 registered members with “about 80 people walking through the doors each month.”
In addition to providing “a safe haven for women,” there is an adjoining unisex gym, primarily for teenage sons of mothers who are gym members.
In May of this year, they opened the Mark Scott Hub – an internet cafe for teenagers – in honor of a young man who lost his life to drug addiction, aged 24, in October 2016. [His mum Natasha is a client of the gym and gave the project her blessing.]
Mark, who had studied to be an accountant, was well known in the local community for his love of designer clothes and rap music.
The former Belfast Royal Academy student had occasionally worked in the family-owned Hill Tavern bar in Carnmoney.
“His mother started coming here after Mark died,” Leanne said.
The objective of the Hub is to provide a safe space for adolescents.
“During the pandemic, parents approached me for help as so many teenagers were at risk of derailment,” she said.
“From the age of 11, there are children in this neighborhood – and I’m sure it’s the same in other places across Northern Ireland and beyond – do drugs, drink and gather in big crowds, get into trouble.
“It kept recalling my memory of Mark, so I called Natasha and we decided to pay tribute to her, while also trying to help other children in the Glengormley area.”
She also runs a summer camp at the gymnasium for 11-24 year olds.
There is no doubt that customers see Leanne – single mother, physical trainer, unofficial advisor – as a superwoman and beating heart of the local community.
What drives her, however, is her desire to continue to provide a safe space for people and her determination to make a difference. As she said, “the door is always open”.
She added: “Everyone has their own unique issues. They have enough on their plate already, and Northern Ireland is not backing down.
“I know from bitter experience what it was, and I never want to go back.”
