The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

The City Edition of the Limerick Leader reports that one of three submissions to the new owner of the Jesuit Sacred Heart Church at the Crescent, O’Connell Avenue, involves changing the building into a bar and restaurant.

The Galway based owner of the property, has revealed that he has received three expressions of interest from Limerick businessmen.

“At the moment, I am conducting ongoing negotiations with three individuals. I have three options open to me at the moment. One group has approached me with a view to keeping the building open as a church, another group want to open offices there, and a third are looking to secure it as a bar and restaurant.” he told the paper. “Provided the new use does not upset the exterior, we are not limited in what we can do.”

Mr. O’Dolan is expected to have made his decision within four weeks.

Churchgoers are not too pleased however at the idea of the church becoming a bar. “what next…a dartboard on the tabernackle?” quipped one worshipper questioned by the Leader.

The Jesuits plan to hold their final mass at the church today (Friday) and are expecting a large attendance.

700 items from the church are expected to go under the hammer when the jesuits put them up for auction at a later date.

Two objections have been submitted to the planning office of Limerick City Council against the proposed new Opera Shopping Centre, due to be located in the city centre.

One of the objections concerned the increased volumes of traffic that the centre would generate, and another expressed concern regarding the fate of some historical buildings.

Construction of the centre is due to begin in the autumn.

From the Limerick Post.

With a title like that many questions could be asked…. including who the F**k is Casper and what the hell has it got to do with Limerick?? Well, – Casper is the name of an experiment that will travel with the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) where an astronaut will wear a special vest designed to monitor his sleep patterns over a period of 150 days! Two researchers from UL are involved in the experiment.”The quality of sleep, or more particularly the poor quality of it, is a major issue for NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) and one of the big stumbling blocks of long-distance space travel,” said Dr Derek O’Keeffe, a UL lecturer in the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering and biomedical engineer. According to the UL lecturer, an astronaut in orbit finds it very difficult to get a good night’s sleep.”There is no gravity to keep you in the bed and even worse, your system has to cope with 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets in a 24-hour day. Disturbed sleep isn’t refreshing and leaves flight crews feeling sleep-deprived and less able to concentrate,” he added.
At present, shuttle and space station crews are given sleeping pills but little data is available on how this enforced sleep compares to normal sleep on earth.Dr O’Keeffe and his UL colleague Dr Marc O’Griofa, who was a medical student at UCD when they started the project, hope to greatly improve this situation with their experiment, Cardiac Adapted Sleep Parameter Electrocardiogram Recorder or CASPER.
CASPER will leave with the space Shuttle Discovery on Saturday and spend 150 days in space and return to earth with the Russian spacecraft Soyuz.

The plans to redevelop the former site of John Moloney’s Honda dealers and Chawkes Esso service station (marked on the map in dark blue) has caused uproar amongs local residents.

Planning permission has been submitted to Limerick City council to demolish both the car dealership and filling station, and to build a 4000 square metre development containing five retail units, betting office, restaurant with take-away facilities, office and a three-storey basement car-park with capacity for 460 cars.

The residents, who are living on Edward Street, claim that with people coming and going to the take-away, the area will become attractive for those wishing to partake in anti-social behaviour. They also believe that they will suffer a reduction in natural light as a result of the development.

The residents have also received the support of Defence Minister, Willie O’Dea.

“The location of a take-away and outdoor seating within yards of a residential area is a recipe for anti-social behaviour and 460 car spaces will add hugely to the chaotic situation that is an everyday occourance at Punches Cross. On top of this, will be the continual flow of delivery vehicles at all hours of the day and night to a service yard located directly opposite to residential homes.” the minister told the Limerick Post newspaper.

When the traffic at Punches cross wasn’t so bad

The minister also claimed that the area is already well serviced in the retail area as it is close to Lidl, Greenpark Shopping Centre and the Crescent Shopping centre and doesn’t need the retail units.

Two people are being detained at Garda Stations around the city , one under the provisions of Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, and the other under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (drug trafficking) act. A number of firearms, including Glock and Beretta semi automatic pistols, stun guns and a a large quantity of ammunition have been recovered. A number of searches took place around the city during the day and a quantity of drugs was also found along with 15,000 euro in cash. Further details will follow in the morning no doubt.

While in catching up mode it seems to have gone under the radar that the Parkway shopping centre has changed hands recently. It was brought to the market some months ago by the owner Clancourt Group with a not so small pricetag of 56 million euros!! The sale price is believed to be in excess of that price and has been bought by the property firm harcourt Developments. Conor Kenny of Clancourt developments commented “We are happy with the price achieved”. The shopping centre is currently bringing in a rental value of approx 2.6 million euro per year. I’m not suprised they are happy with the price that they got for it!!! Maybe its just me but where is all this shopping centre madness and indeed property madness in general going to end?

Edward Casey(41), O’Malley Park Limerick, was this week sentenced to 11 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the rape of a 23 year old woman in Galway City in 2004.

The woman was walking along her usual route to Galway city centre when Casey grabbed her and dragged her to a nearby grassy area. His mobile phone kept ringing while he carried out the rape.

Analisys of data from a nearby mobile phone mast revealed that the calls to his phone were coming from his partner back in Limerick.

The central criminal court had earlier heard that Casey had changed his clothing, and dumped what he was wearing during the rape in a nearby recycling bin.

The first European Harley Davidson rally to be held in Ireland ended in tragedy on Sunday morning when two English-based Poles were killed in a horrific accident near Abbeyfeale as they were making their way home from the event which was being held in Kilarney, County Kerry.

The crash happened at 0600 hrs on Sunday when a BMW car collided with teh two bikes they were riding on the N21 near Ballyduff. The two riders were behind an Opel Omega which was carrying their friends. The BMW also clipped the Opel before hitting the bikers.

The men, believed to be in their 20s died when their bikes caught fire immediately after the colision.

The driver of the BMW, also believed to be a male in his 20s, is receiving treatment for non life-threatening injuries at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee.

An eye witness is quoted in the Limerick Leader as saying, “I’ve never seen anything like it. The two bikes were welded together from the fire. It was awful. You hear about stuff like this only now and then, but you never think you would see it. It really makes you think about road safety.”

The two dead men have not yet been named.

City Councillor Joe Leddin has been elected as the new Mayor of Limerick City.

Cllr Leddin was elected after he stood unapposed during council proceedings last night.

The new mayor is a member of the Labour party whose family have a long-time connection with local politics.

His two uncles Tim and Frank Leddin, were also mayors of Limerick.

Have a look at the full list of Mayors of Limerick since 1197.(PDF)

An interesting post on Cheebah relating to recent comments by public representatives concerning what they believe is a situation involving the construction of apartment blocks on the Dock Road.

In recent weeks, Senator Pat Kennedy came out with, in my opinion, amounts to blatent racism with a comment he made regarding the nationality of some of the tennants living in these apartment blocks.

“There are people there from all over the world, some from Afghanistan.There are some very serious fanatical people there”

Well butter my balls and call me a biscuit, Afghanistan you say. Now what would people think if we have Afghans amongst us. The amount of smoke inhaled from sitting in those local pubs every Tuesday, listening to peoples’s sob stories as they persue the acquisition of a corpo house has obviously damaged Senetor Kennedy’s brain.

What he fails to realise is one does not have to go all the way to Afghanistan to find fanatics. Outside of Dublin, Limerick is the biggest centre for Continuity IRA membership. But it is easier to rile people up about foreigners i guess, ay Pat? But someone has already beaten you when it comes to the use of the xenophobic card for electioneering. Noreen Ryan got there before you.

He also claimed that there was prostitution going on there. Prostitution is everywhere Senetor Kennedy. The “ladies of the night” were walking up and down the Dock Road and O’Curry Street long before these apartments were built. I suspect though that they are there as long as Limerick Docks are there. It makes you wonder why so many people want to keep the Docks open.

Also commenting on the percieved rampant prostitution in the area, “community activist” and Limerick Republican Information Service (hosted on a UK based company’s server) contributor Mick “the Quill” Ryan, dubbed the area Little Amsterdam. I would have to disagree with Cheebah’s belief that this is mere vote whoring on Ryan’s part in the run up to the General Election. Republican Sinn Fein refuse to stand for Dail elections on the grounds that it was a government set up by “the treaty” ergo, the Brittish created it, or some other nonsense like that. Yet Mr. Ryan ran in the last local elections. Limerick City Council was established by the Brittish in 1197 and the city received its charter from King John of England. in fact, all 32 counties were created by the British. Laois and Offaly, then known as Kings County and Queens County, were the first of the 32 counties to be created, by the British. Talk about double-standards. Either that or he hasn’t a clue what he is on about most of the time.

On the subject of his phrase “Little Amsterdam” well, that is just ignorance. For starters, prositution in Amsterdam is regulated, where as here in Limerick, it is not. In Amsterdam you will find scantily clad ladies dancing in windows, whereas in Limerick you will not.

Instead of berating the area, these two individuals, will need to do a few things, that is after they educate themselves on what the Dock Road is really like and after they desist from their own sensationalist attention whoring tactics. and they are:

• Get involved in the area rather than piss and moan about it
• In Senator Kennedy’s case, he could use his contacts in Limerick City council to have a community centre set up to facilitate the 1,000 apartments in the area, A green area nearby wouldn’t go astray either.

Cheebah had some questions for these two individuals also.

Why are there no noticeboards in any of the complexs? Surely a basic requirement if one is to try and build any type of community. Instead any notice, even lost dog notices are torn down off the walls by private management groups and stern warnings posted.

Why is a provision not included in these huge developments (estimate in one of these reports that there are 1000 apartments in close proximity) for a meeting room. This could be used for residents meetings (who would surely do a better job than the present private concerns). Also there is numerous other agencies who could try and impove social cohesion using such a room but no space.

Where is the provision for any type of green space or indeed recreational space. Every space that isn’t used for apartments seems to have been taken up by car parks.

What is the breakdown between 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. A report last week in Britain suggested that the proliferation of these type of units rather than 3 bedroom for example was pricing out people who would buy to live there in favour of those who just buy to let. Surely a more mixed set up would ensure stability and improve levels of interest in maintaining the blocks.

Why have neither of the above politicians gone into the complexs and tried to organise the residents, call meetings etc (apologies if they have but I have never seen one) Pat Kennedy represents Ward 4, as does the new mayor Joe Leddin, where the flats are located?

As LRIS does not have a public comments section, answers to these questions are unlikely from The Quill, you might get something from Senetor Kennedy’s secretary in Leinster House if your lucky.

The sad part about this is that because, on a slow news day between Monday and Wednesday, the likes of the Limerick Leader needs to fill it’s 24 pages with something, rants from people like this are what keep the paper going. In order to fill the paper, they have created a market for pontificators who know shag all about anything.