The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

It’s that time of the year again, – you know when all the international fashion fairs and extravaganzas are taking place all over Europe and a number of sales reps who most of the time happen to be Italian are on their way home. Out of the kindness of their hearts, they take a drive around Limerick City in their hire cars and pull in at the side of the road to offer people passing by the once in a lifetime opportunity to buy that beautiful leather jacket that you’ve always wanted. The fashion fair has been an extraordinary success but they just happen to have your size jacket lying in the boot of the car… Or if its not they can ring their good friend and colleague Mario who is also on his way home from the trade fair, driving around in his hire care with anything you might want….And for you, they will do a special special price….
So if you are gullible enough to believe that an Italian is on his way home to La Dolce Vita from a European fashion extravaganza (last time i checked there weren’t too many of these in Limerick- the fashion tv thing in the trinity rooms last year not withstanding) and out of the kindness of his heart is driving around Limerick city just to give you that extra special deal, go ahead and part with your hard earned euros… You have been warned… recent sightings of Mario and his friend Guisseppi have been in the city centre, Lidl and the Parkway driving a 06 reg VW Golf and a cream 06 KY plated Renault Scenic…

The Limerick Independent as a small mention of an attack on a house in Moyross on Sunday.

The windows of the house, as well as the windows of a car parked outside, were smashed in the attack.

No one was injured in the attack, and Garday at Mayorstone are investigating.

The new FAI league team representing Limerick, -Limerick 37 are due to play their first ever game this Friday night when they meet Bray Wanderers at Jackman Park in Limerick in a pre season friendly ahead of their debut in the First Division away to Cobh Ramblers 7 days later.
The manager Paul Mcgee has already signed eleven players and according to Limerick 37 spokesman Ger Finnin they will announce their full squad at the official launch of the club on 28 February at the Greenhills Hotel in Limerick. He said: ‘We are very close to having a full squad for the start of the season and the entire panel will be named at the official launch of the club. The official crest for the club will also be unveiled at the launch. We wish them the best of luck.

If you are in town today, keep an eye out for a strange looking bus trundling through the streets.

Bus Eireann are testing a new articulated “streetcar” on the streets of Limerick.

The streetcar is a cross between a tram and a bus. It runs on diesel, but can be easily converted to run on biofuels.

The plan is to introduce the new streetcars in regional cities like Cork Gallway, Limerick, and Waterford.

The vehicles are fully wheelchair accessible and can carry up to 118 people.

A nutty idea has been contrived that could see jobs created in County Limerick.

A 19-strong delegation from the Ivory Coast are being wooed by Limerick County Council in the hopes that they locate a proposed peanut processing plant in the county.

And if it works, it would open the way for other industries from the African country to locate their processing plants here. The Ivory Coast is the largest cocoa producers in the world aparantly.

The plan is that the peanuts would be shipped here to be processed and then sold on to farmers for animal feed.

The plan is part of a proposed agreement similar to ones which China enters into with other African countries. In exchange for buying African produce, Chinese companies help develop those countries’ roads and infrastructure. In a similar fashion, the delegation hopes to entice construction and telecoms companies from Ireland to invest in developing the infrastructure of the Ivory Coast.

The delegation being lead by Economics and Finance Minister for the Ivory Coast Diby Koffi Charles, and including the country’s ambassador to the United Kingdom will visit the University of Limerick, Limerick Institute of Technology and the Irish Peace Institute. On Thursday, the delegation will visit the Dáil and the Seannad.

Meetings with Shannon Development and Plassey Technology Park will also take place during the visit.

It is also hoped that plans can be formulated to open an embassy in Ireland.

If you used the Bank of Ireland machine in Dooradoyle on Sunday, It would be advisable to check you balance as you may have been the victim of a skimming machine.

Two men were reported to have removed a skimming machine from the ATM at the bank branch after numerous customers had difficulty retrieving their cards after carrying out transactions on the machine.

Full Story.

Our fighting men and women billeted at Sarsfield Barracks are in retreat, by order of the Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea, the Army is to give up a portion of it’s land to make way for the expansion of the Model Gaelscoil on O’Connell Avenue.

The plot of land, which is one third of an acre in area, will allow the school to develop new facilities including a large multi-purpose room, computer and language lab, and astroturf playing pitch.

The Model School, which first opened in 1855, making it the oldest irish language school in the country, is now launching an appeal to parents and pupils, both past and present to raise funds to make the expansion possible.

The school needs to raise one million euro to fund their part of the cost of the expansion. The Department of Education will be paying two million.

Full details on what the school plans to do can be found on the information leaflet on their website.

Tesco Ireland is set to be the first of the stores to open at the new Coonagh Cross Shopping Centre to be opened. The supermarket chain will open its doors in October 2007 with the remaining 24 stores in phase one of the development coming on board in March of 2008

Phase one of the shopping centre will require 500 permenent staff, and an additional 500 will be employed when phase two is completed.

At present, the construction of the Tesco outlet is being “fasttracked” by developers Sisk, who are responsible for the project.

CGI Render of Coonagh Cross shopping Centre

A young mother from Moyross was killed over the weekend when she was in a single car accident in County Cork over the weekend, it is reported in Monday’s Limerick Leader newspaper.

Kathleen “Ka” Barret from Cliona Park was travelling on the Cork to mallow road in her 06 Ford Fiesta at approximately 0325 hrs when the crash happened at Lissavaura, Rathduff.

A 20 year old male passenger was taken to Cork University Hospital for treatment of his injuries, but was discharged later on Sunday. He is reported by the paper to be from the Garryowen area of Limerick City.

The two were returning from a days shopping in Cork, according to the paper.

Ms. Barret leaves behind a six-year old daughter.

The Impact Theatre Company is to close its theatre on O’Connell Avenue to concentrate on the production of plays rather than the running of a theatre.

In a statement released by the company, Patrick Bourke, artistic director said that running the theatre was taking up too much of the company’s resources.

“The majority of our company members are practitioners whose work in theatre making has made them increasingly busy in the past 18 months. Simultaneously a larger proportion of time at Impact was being spent administering the venue. As we have had such a successful season we need a bigger space to house our audiences and at this moment in time we have not secured the funding to move to alternative premises or to employ a full time administration. Continuing to run our small venue as well as produce theatre is not economically viable in our current circumstances.”

But the company is not disappearing, while the theatre will sease to be, the Impact company will still produce plays, which will be performed in different venues.

According to the company, their next production will be later in the year.