In the midst of a party, death

We were on our way to a friend’s 40th birthday party on the bus and really hacked off that the bus was diverted. There had been ‘an incident’ on Burnt Ash Hill, road closed, we spent 90p on a bus fare to nowhere and had to walk.

Then we arrived at the scene where Jimmy Mizen was murdered. His youngest brother was in my son Henry’s class at school. The bakers’ shop is across the road from Henry’s school and I have often popped in there for a sausage roll.

A very odd evening. Tearful friends of the family spilling out of the church a short distance from the murder scene, the church where my daughter Tilly and son William were Christened, Mass apparently abandoned. An old colleague of Catherine’s doing a live into the BBC News Channel. My old colleague Graham Eva was in the sat truck.

The party was a strange do. Lots of food, Irish music and I drank too much Guinness and whiskey and pondered the angry mood of some of the people there as we talked about the news agenda and how BBC News will be doing lives from the church in the morning… some anger and tears and we are in the middle, Cathy’s phone ringing ringing ringing… the home news desk…

(Guardian article)