The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

It looks like Martin Cullen has had a bellyfull of the alleged shenanigans at Shannon-Foynes Port Company.

According to the Sunday Business Post, every last one of the company’s board members is being given the boot, and are to be replaced in the next couple of weeks.

And if evidence were required to show that Fianna Fail were the “jobs for the boys” party, five of the board members are, or soon to be were, Fianna Fail councillors.

An article in the Sunday Independent this morning will cause a few scowls from the good people of Limerick.

The article entitled “Why not say sorry to the Brits?,” in reference to the absence of an apology from Peter Hain, Northern Ireland Secretary, for the Massacre at Croke Park in 1920, the paper listed off all the things the Irish owed the British an apology for. The following paragraph was contained.

The crowning glory, I think, if we really want to go back in time, could have been an apology from the people of Limerick for the massacre of 600 Brits in King John’s Castle in that fair city in 1642. In scenes reminiscent of, well . . . of Limerick, hundreds were brutally murdered, women raped and so on. I feel the people of Limerick still have it on their minds and they might like to get it out there and clear the air.

I fail to see why scenes of this nature would only be reminiscent of Limerick.

Had the author of the article gone back just one year, he would have read about the massacre of 12,000 Protestant settlers in Ulster by dispossessed Catholics during the same rebellion as the Limerick massacre.

Why stop at 1642, lets go back to 1209 where in Dublin, 500 Brittish settlers were massacred after they left the safety of the City’s walls.

In 1798, the United Irishmen carried out the massacre of 100 civilians, including women and children as reprisals after they heard rumours that their field hospital had been torched by Brittish forces.

From Wikipedia:

Following the disastrous defeat at New Ross, fleeing and panicked surviving rebels brought news of military atrocities, including the incineration of rebel wounded in their makeshift hospital, which incensed elements of the rebel forces stationed at Scullabogue. After twice preventing a gathering mob from harming prisoners, the prisoners guards gave in to the crowd baying for vengeance and allowed some executions by musket-shot of a dozen or so particularly hated individuals. All semblance of control was quickly lost however and the barn was soon torched. People trying to escape the barn were stabbed and beaten to death or forced back into the flames.

So you see, bloodthirstyness might not be as reminiscent to “…well, Limerick” as you might think, Mr. nameless Sunday Independent guy.

I am not sure whether to be amused or nervous about this. One of the Republican Sinn Fein Limerick posse are considering standing as an “abstentionist” member of Dail Eireann.

That is right, he would collect a TD’s salary, but not turn up for work. He would just be changing the place where he collects his money from Dominick Street in Limerick to Kildare Street in Dublin.

Sean O’Neill has hinted at the possibility of running in the Limerick East constituency for the General Election.

He made the statement on the RSF Limerick homepage, which was posted on the site today.

Republican Sinn Fein came into existance when, during the 1986 Sinn Fein Ard Feis, a motion to allow party TDs to take their seats in the Dail was passed by a two thirds majority.

Some of those who disagreed with the idea of republicans taking their seats in the Dail walked out and formed Republican Sinn Fein.

The dissadent republican party has a snowballs chance in Hell of actually being elected, however, they could decide who gets the last seat should they take away enough votes from whichever candidates remain at that point.

Chorus is shuffling channels around on it’s analogue service to make way for it’s digital upgrading work. Customers are being asked to tune their TV and video recorders to 279.25 MHz to find Channel 6’s new frequency.

The At The Races Channel is also on the move. This channel’s new frequency is 287.25MHz

A grenade which bounced off the wall of a house exploded when it landed in the Garden.

Today FM reports that the grenade attack on the O’Malley Park house was also accompanied by shots being fired at the house.

No one is reported to have been injured in the attack.

More as we get it…

Sinn Féin’s Limerick East election candidate Maurice Quinlivan has voiced his opposition to tolling on the Shannon Tunnel, which is due to be completed by 2009-10.

In his latest pre-election statement, he questioned why Limerick motorists would have to pay tolls while those in Cork can use the Jack Lynch Tunnel free of charge.

“The fact that Limerick will have to pay for a tunnel lies in stark contrast to our Cork cousins and the Toll-free Jack Lynch Tunnel. Once again we are treated as poor relations despite the presence of a Limerick Minister at the Cabinet Table. It’s simply not good enough.� he said.

Toll booths for the Shannon tunnel will be located on the Clare side of the crossing. Tolls are estimated to start at €1.60.

Mr. Quinlivan’s statement comes just days after the Government announced a €600m plan to end end the Public-Private partnership between the Government and NTR to run the M50 toll bridges and a section of the motorway.

Limerick multi-millionaire JP McManus has received an honorary patronage of the Philosophical society at Trinity College Dublin

McManus was being honoured for being one of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs, but was reluctant to speak of his charitable work even though it was mentioned in his citation.

“Mr McManus was quite shy when he starting speaking, but he was very affable when the students asked him for some racing tips,” said Daire Hickey, society president

From the fashion section:

They left everyone else out though :(

The entire Limerick Senior Hurling squad, along with the team manager and backroom staff are to be tested for tuberculosis by the Mid-Western Health Service Executive after one of the players, who is also a HSE employee, contracted the desease.

The county edition of this weekend’s Limerick Leader reveals that the tests on the squad will be carried out in the coming days.

The paper reports that the player first became unwell in the first week in February when he accompanied the team to the Breaffy International Sports Hotel, where the team had set up a training camp in preparation for their Allianz League campaign.

According to manager Richie Bennis “he was under the weather that weekend, but still came with us because he was afraid of losing his place in the squad. He is fiercly determined.”

According to bennis, the unnamed player is currently recovering at home and is expected to be back in training in about three weeks time.

The blood testing of all 36 players on the Liemrick Squad, along with the back room staff will be tested days before their NHL clash with Galway at the Gaelic Grounds next week.

While TB was rampant in the 1940s and 1950s, the desease is easily treatable nowadays with antibiotics. There are roughly between 400 and 500 cases of TB each year in Ireland.

Or so says the Limerick Leader city edition anyway.

In December, an ultra-secret think thank was assigned the task of coming up with an idea for an iconic structure which would bring a million more visitors to Limerick over the next ten years.

Now the group have picked five of the best ideas. Unfortunately, the paper only reveals three of them, which is disappointing.

The three most likely ones to get the go-ahead are a multicultural village, a multi-purpose concert or conference centre, and an Irish diaspora centre.

The multicultural village is pretty interesting. It has been likened to the palm island in Dubai according to the paper.

The village will comprise of numerous little villages, each representing a different country. The villages will each have language centres, restaurants, and will have the architectural design of their respective countries.

Each village will be connected by canals and footbridges, and there will be a giant globe at the centre of the development which will be lit up at night.

The conference and Concert centre which has been proposed will be bigger than the University Concert Hall. It looks as though it will act in a similar fashion to the RDS in Dublin, being used for conferences, concerts and events like exhibition.

The five proposed projects will each undergo stringent scrutiny and detailed feasibility testing before one, or even two of them are decided upon.

There are concerns however that the iconic structure would have to be within the city’s environs. Also the project would jace the challenge of finding private funding.

More infor can be found on the front page of the City Edition of the paper.

Personally I like the idea of the multicultural village, it would be an opportunity for learning and the involvement of everyone living in Limerick.