The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

The managers of a backpackers hostel in Queensland, Austrailia are refusing to co-operate with the inquest into the death of a Limerickwoman who died when the building was set alight.

Julie O`Keefe (24), originally from Dromore Rise, Raheen was among those who perished in the fire at a Backpackers Hostel in Queensland, in June 2000.

Julie O`Keefe had just graduated from Waterford I.T. and was travelling across Australia when tragedy struck.

She was staying at the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers on June 23rd 2000 when a homeless fruit picker, Robert Long, set the building on fire.

Long is currently serving a life sentence for starting the fire where fifteen other people lost their lives.

Robert Long

However, the inquest is being held to decide whether or not there should be further charges brought as family members of the dead claim that there was insufficient fire safety measures at the hostel

From ITV News

The hearing has already been told that windows of the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers, Queensland, had been barred and exits blocked.

A bunk bed had blocked the exit in one room where nine bodies were found and the windows were barred, a policeman told the inquest.

Seven British, three Australians, two Dutch and one each from South Korea, Japan and Ireland died in the fire.

There was one big firework set off for the 4th of July at Cape Canaveral in Florida yesterday as Shuttle Discovery, carrying an experinment being run in conjunction with the University of Limerick lifted off.

A brief reminder of what the experinment involves can be found by clicking here.

From Space.com

After two scrubbed attempts, Discovery shot spaceward at 2:37:55 p.m. EDT (1837:55 GMT) from Pad 39B here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The launch marked NASA’s first-ever shuttle flight to leave Earth on Independence Day.

“Discovery’s ready, the weather’s beautiful, America is ready to return the space shuttle to flight.,” NASA launch director Michael Leinbach told Discovery’s astronaut crew just before liftoff. “So good luck and Godspeed, Discovery.â€?

For those of us who know where the courthouse is in Limerick and taking into account many different different pieces of the crime scene that exists in Limerick it is perhaps not uncommon for there to be plenty of action outside the court house as well as inside. Limerick isnt exactly that big that the opposing members of gangs dont know who the enemy is and given the rather good return that the local police have in bringing many of these people down to the courts in the first place the odds are that now and again they are going to bump into each other on (relatively) neutral ground! There hasn’t been too much hassle down around the courts going back a good while now, but order, (or disorder) was restored yesterday with four people arrested arrested during the course of the day. An incident around 11.30am led to the arrest of a man with a rather large knife and in the early afternoon, some three more were arrrested after an attempted round of golf (Limerick style – no golf balls just aim for the head of the opposition)! was interupted by people in blue uniforms… I wonder is there a golf club sale in the local Garda stations held every year seeing as a lot of them tend to be recovered after events such as these? Those people who have had their cars robbed or broken into and their pride and joy set of Wilson clubs taken will doubtless be demanding answers!

A bit of a minor Lazarus in Hurling circles as the Shannonsiders strolled to a ten point win over Offaly in the SHC qualifiers. Not bad considering at one stage in the first half, the Faithful county were ahead by seven points. Limerick still have a chance to come out of their group and claim a quarter final spot. In the second round qualifiers in football, Limerick were defeated by Westmeath who did their own version of Lazarus and came back to win with 14 men with an injury time point to seal victory. Limerick had a chance to level with a 20 metre free which went wide.
In Soccer, Limericks lead at the top of hte eircom league is back to one point after they were defeated during the week. Shamrock Rovers and Cobh ramblers are now on 26 points with Galway six points further behind on twenty although they have a game in hand.

And just to round it all off, the launch of the space shuttle Discovery and the experiment CASPER from Limerick has been postponed for a day due to bad weather at Cape Canaveral!