The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

126 days on and the whereabouts of missing Southill teenager, Richard (Happy) Kelly, still remains a mystery.

This week, his distraught mother Mary has renewed her plea for information which will help find him. The Limerick Post today published an emotional poem written by Mary in the hopes that it will encourage those with information to come forward and to express her feelings at the moment.

The poem is as follows:

A broken hearted mother
She really is upset
She gazes out the window
For a son she can’t forget
Her eyes are full of sadness
There’s an emptiness inside
She waits in hope each moment
And how often she has cried
It is so hard not knowing
There can be a lot of pain
It would make a wish come true
To have him home again
She will not give up hope now
Each night to God she prays
If she just keeps believing
He will walk in home someday
Where can my precious son be
To me he is so dear
He took my heart away with him
The day he went from home
So son if you are out there
And if you hear my plea
If god will grant a miracle
You will come home to me
There has to be an answer
Oh God please find a way
To show her where her son is
Oh God, make it today

A full description of Happy, can be found here. Roxboro Gardai can also be contacted on (061) 214 340

Kudos goes out to the folks at the Style Treaty blog who were featured on page 68 of this weeks Limerick Post.

The article is quite positive, although most of the content comes from the blog than the article’s author. Nonetheless, I am sure the bloggers involved will be pleased with the exposure, and congratulations to them. It’s a bit girly for me but they still deserve our support.

Yesterday was the last day of work for the ten street ambasadors in Limerick city, who were employed to assist visitors to the city to find what they were looking for.

In the three months duration of the project, our street ambassadors helped 7,500 people from 37 different countries get to where they wanted to go.

Now the idea has caught the imagination of the heads at the Merchants Quay Project in Dublin. Speaking to the Irish Independent, MQP spokesman Colm Folen said ”
I was very impressed with the professionalism of the Limerick street ambassadors after spending a day going around with them.

“This is a project that is badly needed in Dublin to help tourists who we see wandering lost around the city centre. It could be replicated in every city and town around the country”

MQP hope to obtain funding from Failte Ireland and the Business Improvement Districts Scheme for the street ambassador scheme.

The pilot scheme, which ran in Limerick this summer, was headed by the Limerick Co-Ordination Office, and half of the funding came from the European Commission.

Very nice, at least now they can pay someone in Dublin to tell tourists that the Liffey boardwalk is a no-go area full of drug dealers and junkies.

A bust-up involving members of two feuding families outside Limerick District Court managed to make its way into the courtroom forcing the presiding judge to abandon procedings amd make a run for it.

Dozens of Gardai piled into the rioting mob of 30 people in a bid to remove them from the courthouse at noon yesterday. Six of the rioters were later arrested, and brought to Henry Street Garda station before appearing before the same judge later yesterday evening.

From the Irish Independent:

A senior garda, who was present in court at the time, warned of the need to increase security at Limerick’s District Court, which is situated beside City Hall.

“There is an urgent need for a review in security down here before somebody is seriously injured, if not killed,” the garda said.

Isn’t it great that dozens of Gardai have to be stationed in the courthouse when they could be on the streets putting the fear of God into these scumbags, thus keeping them on the straight and narrow.

The Independent also reveals the names of those who were arrested, except for the two unclutivated teenagers whose parents should bloody well have their kids taken into care.

Alan Kelly (18), of Delmege Park, Moyross, was described as one of the “main protagonists” in the incident. Objecting to bail, Inspector Seamus Gallagher said he feared witnesses would be intimidated if Kelly was released on bail. Judge Malone remanded him in custody until September 5. The case against Anthony Collins (39), Hyde Park, Ballinacurra, Weston, was also adjourned, but bail was not refused.

James Daly (22), Delmege Park, Moyross, was jailed for two months after the court heard he had thrown a can of orange at another individual hitting him in the back of the neck.

Earl Ibraham, (18), St Patrick’s Road, Limerick, was also jailed for two months for two breaches of the Public Order Act.

A 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also jailed.

Judge Malone agreed to adjourn the case of a 15-year-old youth also charged in connection with yesterday’s incident.

Events like this draw the finest of people, don’t they?

The full Independent story is here.

Broadcasting veteran and all round radio legend, Gay Byrne is to return to the airwaves on Lyric FM from November, Radiowaves reports.

The two hour show, to be called Sunday Best, will broadcast from 3pm and will feature “the best of the big bands, classic crooners and a look at what’s new in the world of light jazz, plus the very best in classical music.”

Gay is quoted on the site as saying “I’m delighted to be returning to my radio roots, playing great music with a little bit of chat in between.”

Those who were disappointed with the end of the Mystery Train brought about by the reshuffle at RTE Radio 1 will be pleased to hear that its host, John Kelly, will have a new home at Lyric with his show “The JK Ensemble.”

RTE Radio 1 landed itself in controversy after it announced the axing of “The Mystery Train” as well as arts show “Rattlebag.”

Wednesday’s Evening Herald reported that the programme for blind and visually impaired people, “Audioscope” was also having the plug pulled

It would seem that Radio One’s abandoning of its cultural responsibility as the main state broadcaster could make Limerick based Lyric, one of the most interesting stations in the country.

Today’s Limerick Leader reveals that an official announcement on the future of Dell Computers in Limerick will be made in October. As we revealed yesterday, Reuters reported that the Polish city of Lodz has been chosen as the location for the new Eastern European facility.

There are now fears that Dell’s Limerick operations will be either downsized or even closed down should mass production of computers be moved to Poland.

A spokeswoman for Dell told the Leader that a decision on the second facility at the end of this quarter. The working year at Dell is divided into “quarters” ending in January, April, July and October. The current quarter will end at the Hallowe’en weekend.

“We believe that the new facility will considerably compliment Limerick’s operation,” the spokeswoman told the paper.

But what the spokeswoman failed to say was which plant was now the second one, Limerick or Poland. If an announcement has been made in the Polish media then it would appear that we will know what is going to happen to Limerick long before October.

Will the smaller EMF3 be known from now on as Dell’s Second facility? Only time will reveal all.

The guys at Radio Limerick One have been working the webmonkeys to do an overhaul of how their website works and the end results should please fans of the station.

As well as getting themselves a shiny new server of their own, they have also launched a high quality webstream.

Gone are the GeoCities popups and the .tk referral pages advertising Crazy Frog. If you visit their new address of radiolimerickone.com, you will find faster page loads and a WinAmp compatible live webcast of the station.

Cannot be good news for the folks working in Limerick now can it

WARSAW (Reuters) – Dell Inc., the world’s largest personal computer maker, will invest 120 million euros ($153.3 million) in a new plant in Poland’s second-largest city Lodz, daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Monday.

Citing unnamed sources, Wyborcza said the company had picked Poland over Slovakia for the plant. It said that together with subcontractors the investment would generate 12,000 new jobs.

The company was not immediately available for comment

One has to pitty the outsourced contractors who will be first against the wall as the revoloution gets under way and both EMF 1 and 3 fight for survival.

Thanks to Rory for the story.

A special exhibition to celebrate the life and times of richard Harris is to be opened at the Friars Gate theatre in Kilmallock on the 1’st of October, the late actors birthday. It will run until the 25th of October- the date on which he died four years ago. The exhibition which is being organised by artist Thomas Delohery will be held in other venues around Limerick also, including Crescent College and the Limerick Racecourse. A statue in memory of Richard Harris will be unveiled in Kilkee on the 30th of September while plans to honour the man in his native city with a statue are proceeding and it is believed that it will be located on the recently pedestrianised Bedford Row

In rugby news, a second string Munster team went down 26 -18 to Leicester tigers in a challenge at musgrave Park in Cork on Friday night. The game by all accounts was a lively encounter and was lapped up by over 7,000 fans who turned up to watch the boys in red first game of the season. Hooker Frankie Sheahan had his first game in nine months and put in a good performance, good news given that Gerry Flannery is out for the forseeable future. Munster scored first with a Jeremy Manning penalty before Geordan Murphy crossed for two tries converted by Paul Burke. Manning then converted his own try and added a penalty to leave the home side trailing 14-13 at the break. Leiester added two more tries, the second a sublime Sam Vesty effort but Munster ended the scoring when debutant James Coughlan scored in injury time.
15. Christian Cullen, 14. John Kelly capt. (Ciaran O’ Boyle), 13. Tom Gleeson, 12. James Downey (Shaun Payne), 11. Ian Dowling (Mossy Lawlor,) 10. Jeremy Manning (Eoghan Hickey), 9. Chris Delooze (Tomas O’ Leary), 1. Eugene McGovern (Darragh Hurley), 2. Frank Sheahan (Sean Cronin), 3. Federico Pucciariello (Tim Ryan), 4. Chris Wyatt (Shane O’ Connor), 5. Donnacha Ryan, 6. James Coughlan, 7. Brendan Cuttriss (Ross Noonan), 8. John O’ Sullivan.

In soccer news, things have been going belly up for the local team lately and haven’t improved much this week. Manager Noel O’Connor resigned midweek and last night the team went down 3 -1 to UCD in the third round of the FAI Carlsberg cup. Limerick opened the scoring after half an hour with a goal from Robbie Kelleher but the students regained their composure and ran out comfortable winners in the end.