The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

A third teenager has been charged with the arson attack on the two Murray children last September.

The 16 year old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Limerick District Court at lunchtime today.

The court was told that this particular individual is alledged to have “kept guard” while the other two accused carried out the attack on the car which Gavin (4) and Millie (6) were sitting in.

The youth was released on bail on condition that he sign on at his local Garda station every day, obaserve a curfew between 2200 hrs and 0700 hrs, and is to have no contact with either the Murray family or his two co-accused.

He is due to apear before the court again on January 2, 2007.

Not much time to write on this at the minute, but more details can be found here.

A fire on Oliver Plunket Street in St. Mary’s Park completely destroyed one house and caused serious damage to an ajoining house yesterday afternoon.

The fire is said to have been caused accidentally. Three units of the Limerick Fire Brigade were involved in putting out the fire.

Just to let you folks know, there will be a story on the Limerick Blogger in the City Edition of the Limerick Leader. Keep an eye out for it.

UPDATE: The article is on Page 3 of the first section of the paper.

A man has died after being struck by an ambulance in Co. Kerry.

The man, who is in his 40s, was walking in the Tullig area of Killorglan, was hit by the ambulance at approximately 0200 hrs. this morning. He has not yet been named. Gardai from Cahirciveen are investigating the incident.

And it is only the tip of the iceberg according to Gardai. In an article in today’s Irish Independent, we are told that there are literally hundreds of Heroin addicts in our city. And the availibility of the drug is drawing people from as far afield as Tipperary, Tralee and Ennis to get it.

In fact, whilst one raid on a house was being carried out this year, a man called to a house looking for €700 worth of the drug after travelling all the way from Galway.

It is also claimed by the Health Service Executive that over three quarters of all heroin addicts in the Mid-West region are from Limerick City. They are mostly males between the age of 18 and 25, although some below the age of 18 have sought help for their addiction to the drug.

The full story can be read here.

For some people, Christmas day was sepent in the south of France rather than the mid west of Ireland, and not by choice. The fog which affected parts of Europe last week and wreaked havoc at Heathrow airport also affected some Ryanair passengers who were stranded in southern France on Christmas Eve .They were unable to make their journeys from Carcassonne to Dublin and Shannon on Sunday because of complications arising from bad weather. Some were flown to London-Stansted where Ryanair provided an unscheduled plane for their journey home.This evening, a flight from the south of France, carrying the remaining 17 passengers, arrived at Shannon Airport.
Ryanair said that the 100 people bound for Dublin and the 38 hoping to go to Shannon were offered places on a plane going to Stansted, outside London, which was able to leave, despite the fog. But there was no connecting flight from Stansted to Ireland.
Some people did take up the offer, and Ryanair then sent over a plane to Stansted to bring those people back to Dublin.Ryanair has apologised to all the delayed passengers concerned for the disruption to their plans. In a statement the airline said the fog on Christmas Eve made it unsafe to fly and that safety was its number one priority. Ah well, at least they will be back in time for the sales which start this morning!

If you see some bewildered people looking a bit lost tomorrow, dont worry, its only a few folk from the pale who are coming down to watch a rugby match and compare christmas presents. Some of them may stand out as they could be wearing brand new team shirts which Santa brought and just in case they cant remember, their team colours are of the blue variety and hopefully that is how they will feel after an afternoons entertainment in Thomond Park. Leinster provide the opposition for the red army and the game is a sell out. For those of you without a ticket, tune your radio to Newstalk 106 – 108fm or else you can watch it on Setanta Sports with coverage starting at 2.45pm for a 3pm kick off. Munster will be without Alan Quinlan who was suspended for six weeks after admitting to a stamping offence. Munster are appealing the decision but Alan will not line out in the near future. News on both teams is here. RTE 2 screened an hour long documentary called Glory Glory Munster tonight and when the afluence of incohol wears off we might be able to give a review, but according to the good folks on Munsterfans.com the reaction seems positive enough so far!

It was back to business as usual this St. Stephen’s Day for both Crooks and Cops after a man attempted to rob a shop on O’Connell Avenue bright and early this morning.

The man , who was armed with a home-made knife (He didn’t hear about the Debenhams promotion) entered the shop at 1000 hrs this morning.

Luck however was not with him, after he managed to make off with a whopping €0. That’s right, zero.

What makes it worse is that Gardai have since recovered the makeshift weapon and are “following a definite line of enquiry.”

Well, at least he didn’t get a smack of a turnip.

Someone on Griffith Avenue is truly in the Christmas mood, but will his mood change when the ESB bill comes in January. Nine out of ten houses in Weston have either lights in their windows or exterior Christmas lights installed.