Former Tir na Nog manager: Attack 'stole sense of security'

A police report indicates three men are suspected of assaulting Annie Britton-Nice, 59, Tuesday night and news of the attack has the Triangle community rallying around her.

Britton-Nice was still battered, bruised and shaken by the assault Friday evening.

“I think they hit me on the back of the head with something because there’s a huge lump,” she said. “Everything was knocked out of me. It was a total black-out shock. I didn’t know if I’d been hit by a car or what had happened.”

Britton-Nice said she had just returned home from a meeting when three men attacked her in a parking lot near her apartment. She said they took everything, including her debit card, phone, and family pictures and mementos of both of her deceased sons.

“I can see these three guys in front of me, but I still don’t know what was going on. It was just shock, pure shock,” said Britton-Nice.

She will need to wear a surgical neck brace for the next eight weeks and may require surgery due to injured ligaments from being dragged.

Britton-Nice said that she walked home from the pub, sometimes as late as midnight, without fear. She said the attack has stolen her sense of security.

“That is the thing I feel like they took away from me the other night. They took away that sense of security, that wee bit that was mine,” she said.

Britton-Nice left Tir na Nog when it closed late last year. She recently started her own event-planning company, Irish Mother Productions.

In addition to her work at Tir na Nog, Britton-Nice has served as an advocate for the local Irish community and has helped plan numerous events and fundraisers.

More than $12,000 had been raised for Britton-Nice's medical treatments as of Friday afternoon.

A fundraiser is planned Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Hibernian on Glenwood Avenue in downtown Raleigh. Gerry McCrudden will perform. A hat will be passed to collect donations for Britton-Nice.

Britton-Nice praised the family, friends, and strangers who have come to her aid since the attack.

“This city is amazing. This city has rallied and come around me and wrapped me in a blanket and carried me through this. I’m so grateful, so very, very grateful,” she said.