The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

The Clare People reveals this morning that Ireland’s top three pollouters are located in the Mid-West region.

Number one on the list is Moneypoint power station near Kilkee in County Clare. The station pumps over 5.3 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. Arsenic is also being pumped out of the coal burning station.

In second place was the ESB power station at Tarbert. High levels of cromium were reported to be emitted from this station.

And Limerick took third place with Aughanish Auminium pumping high levels of arsenic. The aluminium company came second in Ireland to Moneypoint in the amount of arsenic being pumped into the air.

Limerick County Council workers who want to connect the people of Palaskenry and Kildimo to a water supply they don’t want, clashed again with locals yesterday.

Several protestors turned up to demonstrate their opposition to their water supply to what they claim is a poluted River Deel.

I’m sure indymedia will have more in the coming days, but for now, that is the only info I have.

The Director of Public Prosecutions apears to have dropped the murder charge against rampaging bus driver, Paul Clarke.

Clarke (36) with an address of Kiltalawn Court, Jobstown, Dublin was arrested after a high speed chase with armed Gardai along the N7 on the outskirts of Dublin City. Clarke ploughed through traffic in a stolen coach from his employer, Dualway Coaches, killing Newcastlewest woman Maire Buckley (right).

At the Central Criminal Court yesterday, both defence and the state agreed that this was a manslaughter charge and outside of the remit of the Court. Justice Paul Carney remanded Clarke in custody to apear again before Dublin District Court, where a manslaughter charge is likely to be brought against him.

Ms Buckley, (61) was originally from Newcastlewest but at the time of her death was living in Donnycarney. She died when the car in which she was a passenger was crushed by Clarke’s stolen bus.

RESPOND, who are a voluntary organisation who like to build houses, have decided to get up off their arses and do something about anti-social behaviour occouring in their estates.

Earlier this year the organisation acted like a spoilt brat declaring that it would leave Limerick after being criticised by Limerick City Councillors after a house was burnt to the ground in one of their Thomondgate estates. A second house has suffered the same fate since.

Anyways, they have finally decided to take responsibility for their developments and are taking part in an initiative whereby local residents will be able to report suspicious characters hanging about their estate via text message.

This is all part of a new neighbourhood watch scheme being run in the Distillary View estate.

There will also be regular meetings scheduled between residents and the Community Garda in the area.

Previous posts on RESPOND

The killers manslaughterers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe have been given permission by the high court to challenge the decision of the Govenor of Castlerea Prison’s refusals to grant temporary release to them.

In the High Court yesterday, it was stated that Kevin Walshe was refused temporary release to see his 85-year old father who is currently unwell. Pearse McCauly was refused permission to visit his mother.

Judge Justice McMenamin, presiding, ruled that the four,Kevin Walsh, Michael O’Neill, Pearse McAuley and Jeremiah Sheehy, should have the right to challenge the prison govenor and the Minister for Justice should they decide to refuse temporary release to them.

The four men are serving between 11 and 14 years at Castlerea Prison for the manslaughter of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched post office robbery in Adare in 1996.

RTE News has more including video and audio in real media format.

In it’s first ever donation in Limerick, the Dell Foundation is to fund a new IT project for Moyross children to the tune of U$30,000

The new facility is to be run by the Moyross Development Company.

It is hoped that computer training will increase the chances of employemnt for these kids when they go to look for work. At present, there is 21 percent unemployment in Moyross.

According to Kevin Rollins of Dell, the funding will be used to equip a computer room at the Moyross Enterprise Units.

The Examiner has the story.

“Would ye go ‘way with ye’r cheap grenades.”

This is what Liam Casey had to say to the individuals who tossed a grenade through his hall door window in O’Malley park during the weekend.

He branded the attackers “Amateurs” after the grenade failed to go off on Friday night. A person who was in the car which the grenade emerged from was heard shouting “Now, it’s all out war.”

The house was empty at the time, and Casey didn’t come accross the device until 1130 hrs on Saturday morning.

The bomb squad from Cork were called to dispose of the grenade, which was destroyed in a controlled explosion in an undisclosed location.

This is the second attack on Mr. Casey’s house in recent weeks. His girlfriend was shot in the arm as she washed plates in the kitchen, and since then has refused to stay at the house, or let their two children stay there either.

A protest at the Atlantic Homecare Limerick brance by members of the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign resulted in staff either removing Israeli products from their shelves, or placing “Out of Stock” stickers on items which were too big to be moved.

Members of the IPSC held a picket outside the store on Friday, handing out fliers to shoppers entering the store.

According to a statement from the IPSC, management at the store agreed to remove the items from shelves unti Monday pending a meeting between members of the group and Atlantic Homecare management at head office.

United States Vice-President Dick Cheney made a stopover at Shannon Airport this weekend en route to a meeting with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.

His plane touched down early on Saturday morning, and according to an article submitted to Indymedia, it was expected that he would be making his return flight that evening.

The roumor mill is working overtime with claims that George W Bush will be passing through the airport on Tuesday en route to Jordan.

Limerick girl Maeve O’Donovan has qualified for the finals of RTE’s You’re a Star. The daughter of Nial O’Donovan received the top vote of 28 percent out of the six acts which performed in Galway tonight.