Wexford native and Trafford Council Chief Executive Theresa Grant pictured with Wexford Rotary President Niall Reck and former President Eddie Breen on a visit to Wexford in happier times.

WEXFORD NATIVE Theresa Grant, who is Chief Executive of Trafford Council in Manchester, said the week following the Manchester Arena terrorist attack was “very sad” and “very challenging” for the British city and its people.

A sombre atmosphere, she said, prevailed throughout the city after 22 people, including young children and parents, were killed and 59 were injured after a suicide bomber detonated at the entrance to the arena following an Ariana Grande concert.

While Ms. Grant was not in the city centre on Monday night last, when the atrocity occurred, the local authority district of Trafford, which she leads, borders the city centre and so a number of its hospitals were mobilised following the attack.

In its aftermath, Prime Minister Theresa May raised the UK’s terror threat from severe to critical.

While the city of Manchester was destroyed by IRA bombing in 1996, the difference with last week’s events, Ms. Grant said, was that it was “an attack on people.

“Any loss of life is shocking and wrong but when you see this targeted at children and young people it’s incomprehensible.”

Read more in the Wexford Echo.