The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

The recent so-called controversy regarding the transportation of non-Protestant children on a schoolbus operated by Limerick VEC for Villiers Secondary School has been nothing more than yet another opportunity for the quarehawks in the renagade fringe of the Republican movement to get their ugly mugs in the content starved pages of the weekday Limerick Leader.

To give a little background, the parents of two children have been refused the use of the Villiers Schoolbus because they are not Protestants. Villiers School was set up to cater for the protestant community so they have given Protestant children priority with regard to the use of this bus.

Now those affilliated with the Republican Sinn Fein movement are calling for a picket of Limerick VEC and claim that this “discrimination” is no different to the treatment of Catholic children during the Holycross school unrest.

But they fail to mention two distinct facts. Firstly Catholics are not being singled out at Villiers. This policy affects all those children who are non-Protestant. The policy has been there since the 1960s and no one has had a problem with it until now. In Holycross, children were being attacked because they were being victimised. At Villiers, they are not.

The second fact is that the parents of these children knew damn well that they were sending their kids to a Protestant school before they entered first year. If they had any sense, they would have understood that, as the school was set up for Protestants, their primary duty was to look after Protestants first.

If these parents have a problem with a Protestant School, of which there are few in the country, looking after Protestants first, then they should have considered sending their children to either a Catholic or a non-denominational school. The alternative would be to pack too many children onto busses, risking their safety, just so a bunch of hairy men in the Barstool Brigade of the republican movement can “make a point.” There have been problems with safety on Irish schoolbusses in the past, which like what happened in County Meath last year, resulted in children being killed.

You would not expect a bus for disabled children, going to a disabled school, to put the interest of ablebodied children before its primary market. If there isnt enough room on the schoolbus after the Protestant community, for which the school was set up to cater for, have been taken care of, then it is tough shit.

The Barstool Brigade need to cop them selves on as well. This attention whoring over stupid and trivial issues, makes you look stupid, and more like an attention whore than a community activist.

The Shannon/Foynes port company have made the plans for the Limerick Docklands development public this week. In a plan which promises to bring 1000 permenant jobs to the city, a national converence centre, a new skyscraper, a finacal centre, reduce trucks going through the city, and the upgrade of Foynes Port to double its current capacity.

Forecasts for the overall development suggest such a project could generate income for Limerick City Council alone in the order of tens of millions of Euro – hundreds of times what is being generated for the City from the site at present. The overall value of the project to the city’s economy in monetary terms has the potential to exceed €50 million a year.

The public have met these plans with much optimisim:

The Limerick docks is dead! All the main ships go to Foynes! When i used to go down to the docks a few years ago there would be at least 5 boats there at a time. Now, you would be lucky to get more than two boats there in a day! They’ve developed the Steamboat Quay area and they put one of the best hotels in Limerick there but if u stay on the right side of the hotel you see the the city from your window looking towards King John’s Castle however if ur on the left hand side your looking into a dirty scrap yard and a dry docks

I really hope “The Handbag” goes ahead! It’s cool looking and the glass works well

it must go ahead!!!! Kicks Dublin IFSCs in the ass

I mentioned in a previous posting on Big Brother that one of the contestants, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace had Limerick relatives. It turns out, her mother, Sophia Horgan came from a Limerick family, however their relationship soured when when she reached her late teens. The Sunday Mirror has a detailed interview with Aisleyne here.

Anyway, to update on this, Aisleyne secured third place in the “reality” show after receiving more votes than fellow housemates Jennie, Nikki and Richard.

Out of herself and the other two remaining housemates Pete, and Glyn, she scored 22% of the public vote.

A construction worker has died after an industrial accident on a building site this morning. The accident happened at approx 9.45am at the building site on Henry Street opposite Dunnes Dunnes Stores. The site used to be the Savoy complex but was knocked some months ago and work has been ongoing to build a new hotel and shopping outlets. An ambulance conveyed the man to the Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle but it is believed he died shortly after arrival. Gardai and Health and safety inspectors are currently at the site. Traffic on Henry Street is currently down to one lane from the Junction of Shannon St to Bedford Row.

A wedding reception with a difference being reported on by Jimmy Woulfe in the examiner…. Two Welsh rugby mad fans crossed from the valleys to the Shannon estuary to tie the knot to get married in a rugby mad city! Louise Morgan and Anthony Grzesica both from the small village in Treharris in South Wales came over along with fifty friends and family and lined out for their ceremony at the City registry office. They then proceeded off to Tom and Gerrys pub on Glentworth Street for the rest of the festivities. The pub has just undergone a makeover and extension and was in tip top shape for the day. Naturally enough the Bridesmaids wore red for the day!!

UCH has announced that Christy Moore and Declan Sinnott will play a night out at the the UL venue on Thursday the 21st of September at 8pm. Visit www.uch.ie or phone 061 331549 for tickets. Prices start at 40 euros.

The Irish times is reporting that PC giant Dell is set to announce a plan to build a new manufacturing and logistics plant in Poland. At present, Dell’s only European manufacturing plant is in Limerick, from where it exports around EUR10 billion worth of its products a year. The new Polish plant’s manufacturing facility will be around 600,000 sq ft in size, with a 300,000 sq ft supplier logistics centre alongside it. It remains to be seen what effect if any, this has on the site in Raheen.

Target practice is still being carried out badly by some of the natives around the city. Apparently shots were fired in the Claughan Rd area around 9pm last night and some more are reported to have been fired in the Moyross area around 5.30pm this evening. No one is believed to have been injured in either event.

Yes, ‘special’ … that’s the appropriate word to describe Limerick County Council. Throughout the world you’d be hard pressed to find a council who are as ‘special’ as the one we have right here in Limerick. The county council have almost completed the multi-million euro redevelopment of St. Nessans Road running from Raheen through Dooradoyle.

This includes adding a roundabout for the turn off to Fr. Russell Road: no problems
Adding a one way bus lane: problem
Adding a 2 way cycle lane: problem
Resurfacing the entire road: problem

Bus Lane
Riding on a bus, it is fairly obvious that the County Council didn’t have consultations with the Bus Drivers who are using only half of the Bus Lane facilities. At one point the bus lane is cut out with a crossing point for pedestrians, where buses would become stuck to try and get out of the lane, solution? buses pull out of the lane 2 blocks before the problem zone. A stop outside of Xtra-vision isn’t long enough for a bus to pull into, and further up buses leave the lane again.

Cycle Lane
In conjunction with the County Councils cycle lane policies the new stretch has a cycle lane running on both sides of the road, on the inbound side it is incorporated with the bus lane, on the outbound it is just a narrow marking on the ground, suitable for cyclists. Its great that these provisions have been put in place, and it is obvious that many new people are taking advantage of these lanes and cycling more. Although it is my firm believe that it is now more dangerous then ever for cyclists, and motorists for that matter as cars feel it is perfectly right to park on the cycle lanes, driving cars out into the opposite side of the road and cyclists weaving in and out of these cars, twice in the past few days I have seen cars slam on the breaks because a cyclist had to pull out in front of them. The county council have done absolutely nothing to stop or prevent these cars from parking on the cycle lanes; all these cars need to be towed before a serious accident occurs.

Resurfacing
The crew have done a great job on the road (except the bus lane/crossing point situation), the road is smooth and well laid out with wide footpaths, clear lanes and provisions for all road users. And just as the road is being completed at one end, the other has been dug up again. This is the especially ‘special’ planning Limerick County Council come up with on a weekly basis. Obviously the council don’t like the possibility of companies working together, where they could have lain whatever it was that they put down at the same time as the others had the road up. But alas this is Limerick County Council we are talking about and not only was the road dug up, the tar around the area has bubbled up and the actual hole has had a terrible fill in job.

So there you have it the four parts of the new road development of St. Nessans road, 3 have been messed up because of poor planning. Life will be so much less stressful when Limerick City Council are eventually given authority over the area.

After months of bombardment from City Hall seemingly promoting everything Limerick has to offer, and the co-ordination office setting up the Street Ambassadors and for once everything seemed like they were all doing there job.

Well today was a wakeup call, reading today’s Limerick Post I came across an article on the results of the survey conducted on behalf of the co-ordination office by the Street Ambassadors, “On the negative side the visitors complained… that there were no boat trips on the River Shannon�. Now for people to walk away from a Street Ambassador, whose sole job is to help tourists get around the city, with the idea that no boat tour operates in Limerick City is totally astounding to me as no matter where any of those Ambassadors were they are within a ten minute walk of the boat tours which leave Arthur’s Quay 3 times daily. More shocking was the fact that the paper never picked up on the fact that the street ambassadors never mentioned the boat tours. Thinking into it, I cannot recall any local news source to even mention that a boat tour was operating from Limerick City for the summer, which in reality is a real positive move for this city. Later when I was pointing this out to people many were surprised to hear a boat tour operated, others only knew of it from signs. It would be interesting to know how much information Street Ambassadors are offering on sites/tours not operated by Shannon Development/Limerick Civic Trust (etc).

Continuing on that front, today I decided to “hop on� one of the sightseeing tour buses of Limerick City, before it began I had a quick chat with the guide, telling him I only noticed the buses over the past few days. As it turns out the “hop on, hop off� buses have only been operating since Saturday, I starting to think it seemed late in the season in begin a tour service until I heard that they were ready to go in April! Limerick City Council had blocked them from beginning and did not give the go ahead until recently; I was astounded that the Council were trying to stop the service from setting up. Services like this are great for local tourism, the more things to do in the city, the more tourists will come and spend longer times here.

Both tours do not seem to be doing well, although seeing as the bus tour is only getting set up it is hard to tell. These are both great Limerick attractions and a lot of fun, please support either (or both) by taking the tours and seeing things you may not have seen or known about.

Shannon River Boat Tours operate two routes (up stream and towards the estuary) and leave from Arthur’s Quay Park between 1 and 3 times daily, ask in tourist office for more information. (2.30 hrs). 30euro, 20euro (child)

‘Hop on, Hop off’ Sightseeing Tours of Limerick City begin at Dunnes Stores (across from the tourist office) and operate every 90 minutes with 4 stops (Treaty Stone, Thomond Park, Perys Square, St. Johns Cathedral… are stops, if I remember correctly, as well as by the tourist office). 15euro, 10euro (under 15)

Bolton Comedian Peter Kay is in town this Friday night as he is performing at the third birthday bash for the trinity rooms. The big man has also been reported as having bought a house for a million euros out in Killaloe… A long way from Amarillo indeed!!

More bank Holiday dialup blues here at the Limerick blogger so catching up on various fronts…

Sport….. Limerick Fc’s league form continued its downward spiral over the weekend when the home team were on the wrong end of two penalties and an own goal in a 3 -1 home defeat by Galway United.

Road carnage…. Thankfully there were no fatalites over the bank holiday weekend on Limerick roads, There was however a serious accident on Monday evening at Clonlara Cross involving a motor bike and a car. The pillion passenger and the driver of the vehicle were slightly injured while the driver of the motorbike is in a critical condition and has been moved to the University hospital in Cork. The emergency services were at the scene for a number of hours and the roads in the area were closed for a short time with diversions in place. Gardai from Ardnacrusha are investigating the accident and witnesses are asked to contact Ardnacrusha Gardai at 061-345136

Funeral….. The funeral of the young man who died in tragic circumstances while on hoiday in Ibiza took place at Hospital on tuesday morning. A large crowd was in attendance.

Stop the bus… There are often complaints about the Bus Eireann service around Limerick city and doubtless there were many mone on Tuesday morning when drivers took an impromptu strike and there were no bus services in the city from 11am to 2pm. The cause of this latest disruption to bus services was due to the fact that the Bus Eireann drivers have a grievance against a private operator who they claim is operating a route to Shannon without a correct licence. The drivers blocked this bus from moving on Tuesday morning by standing out in front of it and refusing to move. After a standoff, the Gardai arrived and the bus was moved from Henry Street onto Sarsfield St where the protest continued but at least the road wasnt as badly blocked and traffic which had backed up considerably quickly returned to normal.

Boris lands 12 years late…. Those of us old enough to remember when Boris Yeltsin was president of Russia well remember a famous episode in 1994 when the bould Boris who is know to be fond of the odd vodka or twenty three arrived in Shannon airport for a quick visit. Mr Yeltsin caused an international stir in September 1994 when his plane circled Shannon Airport for an hour while a group of officials – which included Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and a guard of honour with military band – waited on the tarmac below.The party, which also boasted Mr Reynold’s wife Kathleen, two ministers, several TDs, and officials from the Russian embassy, was then kept at the steps of the plane for 15 another minutes until it was clear the former premier would not be alighting from his plane.The event made headlines all over the world. It was rumoured at the time that Yeltsin was so drunk he couldnt stand up, but the official story was that he had overslept and that his security were too afraid to wake him up!! Anyway, showing there are no hard feelings, Boris flew in to Shannon last thursday and actually got off the plane and enjoyed a three day break in the West. He even spent time out on the Aran Islands where he was spotted nursing a bottle of Jameson!!

Sold..or leased??…. Debenhams will take over Roches Stores in O’Connell St in September as part of a deal which has seen the UK group take over 11 stores in a 29 million euro deal. Roches Stores will retain ownership of the buildings while Debenhams will have the lease and all of Roches Staff and management will transfer to Debenhams. The jobs of the 250 staff in Limerick are believed to be secure at the moment.

Travellers moving on….. Some of the travellers who are currently staying at the side of a road near you around the city have been moved on in recent days. The illegal encampment at the parkway roundabout was there for over two weeks and Limerick City council have put a fence and mounds of earth around the area where the caravans had been parked.

Flying high… Following Ryanairs announcement of new routes in October, American airlines has confirmed that it will start a service from Shannon to Chicago in the coming months.. Passenger figures at the airport are up 17% this year with over 400,000 passengers using the airport in July alone. Total passenger numbers for the year are now 2.1 million passengers.

In soccer, Limerick halted their five match losing streak in the eircom league first division last friday night at Hogan park. However they dropped another two points despite taking an early lead against bottom of the league Monaghan town. Tommy Barrett opened the scoring for the home team on eleven minutes but Monaghans’ David Lee scored the equaliser with his fifth goal in five games in the 26th minute.

In Munster rugby news, it has been announced that the boys in red will play their Heineken cup pool opponents Leicester tigers in a friendly at Musgrave park on the Friday the 25th of August. One player who will miss out on this and more games for a number of months is Munster hooker Gerry Flannery who has gone into hospital for an operation on a shoulder injury. Its not know how long Gerry will be out for but will most probably miss the opening Heineken cup games and the November internationals. We wish him a speedy recovery. Munster still haven’t been very active in the transfer market with Chris Wyatt from Llannelli and Eoghan Hickey from Leinster the only arrivals so far. Meanwhile eleven players have left so hopefully the inbox will receive a few more before the season starts!!
The one item on every rugby fans Santa list is bound to be “Our Road To Glory”. It’s the story as told by the Munster team and management of how they captured the Heineken Cup. This will be the only book this year to contain exclusive interviews with all of the Heineken Cup winning team and their management. Paul O’Connell, Anthony Foley, Peter Stringer, Ronan O’Gara, Donncha O Callaghan, John Hayes, and coach Declan Kidney are among those who talk openly of their fears and hopes going into the final giving readers a fascinating insight into the rituals and mental courage of this winning team. Billy Stickland was allowed exclusive access to training, to the victorious post match dressing room, to the after match celebrations and his stunning photography will feature throughout the book. Some photos are sure to surprise Munster fans! Munster man Alan English is the Sports Editor of The Sunday Times and his book Stand Up and Fight: When Munster Beat the All Blacks was a bestseller in 2005. Billy Stickland is Ireland’s leading sports photographer and his photos feature regularly in the national press.