The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

If you think that Barney the dinosaur only appears to little kids who use their imagination, think again.

It seems that the 18 year old UL student who claimed to have been kidnapped by two individuals wearing Barney the Dinosaur masks was doing just that, using his imagination.

The student reported to a Garda station in Finglas earlier this month claiming that two men disguised as the worlds most famous imaginary friend forced him at knife point to drive them from a carpark at the University of Limerick to a location near Dublin Airport.

He claimed that after dropping them at their destination, they paid him €500, today’s Limerick Leader however puts the figure at €700.

But Gardai have been looking in their Barney Bags and along with the gizmos, gadgets and old string, they have found evidence that leads them to believe that the student’s encounter with kidnappers was a figment of his imagination.

A file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions and charges of making a false claim to Gardai may follow.

Maybe our student friend is just…well, special

Three Garda cars had their tyres slashed yesterday as they carried out a raid on a house in Keyes Park yesterday according to Live 95FM.

During the raid, €2,000 worth of an ilicit substance, a firearm, and €5,500 in cash were seized during the raid.

A man and a woman, both in their 20s were arrested during the raid.

Green Party Education Spokesman Paul Gogerty TD with Limerick East candidate Patricia Forde Brennan at at the launch of the Green party’s policy on physical education, which was held at the Pery hotel in Limerick this morning. Picture: limerickblogger.org

The first of a promised ten schools with enhanced physical education facilities will be located in Limerick if the Greens are in power after the election.

The promise was made this morning at the launch of the party’s proposals to improve physical education in Irish schools, held in Limerick’s Pery Hotel.

Speaking at the presentation, Limerick East candidate “Patricia Forde-Brennan said This is part of our plan to roll out 10 model sports schools nationwide in major regional population centres, with the pilot facility being located at a site in the Limerick area. Local schools will be invited to tender for the project, which will include a major upgrade of sporting facilities at the selected site,”

“I am delighted that Limerick has been selected as the first site for our proposed Model Sports School. Limerick has a strong sporting tradition within its education network and is renowned as a centre of excellence for training in sports and physical education. We are committed to establishing such a facility early on during our term of office in Government.”

“These schools will be modelled on the successful Westfields Sports School in Sydney, Australia, where academic performance and the achievement of sporting excellence go hand in hand,” Said Deputy Gogerty, who said the idea came about after a fact-finding mission by the Education and Science comittee to Australia.

I have the entire press conference on tape, am currently encoding it and will have it ready for viewing later this evening.

This post is to test the Daylight Saving Time plugin

The plug in worked.

For those of you who posted comments between 0100 UTC and now, your comments have not been lost, they will simply appear an hour late.

If they do not appear, then feel free to post them again.

apologies for the inconvenience.

This is due to the conversion to Daylight Saving Time, which begins today. remember to put your clocks forward kids.

Credit must go to Kimmo Suominen for creating the Time Zone plugin which changes the time on the blog automatically so we don’t have this problem again.

Some catching up and a review of some of the sports involving some of the natives…..
Limerick37 FC kept up their unbeaten record in the FAI first division on Friday night with a two nil home win over Kildare town. A nice crowd of some 740 people turned up at Jackman Park to see the Shannonsiders maintain their unbeaten start to the season and they are now second in the league table on seven points, two behind table toppers Dundalk who have a maximum 9 points after three games.

On to rugby and an injury ravaged Munster side did a bit of a lazarus up in Belfast on Friday night when they came back from being down by twenty one points to three at half time to stage an almighty comeback culminating in a winning try by newcomer Brian Carney with four minutes to go. The Ravenhill side were stunned and the defeat does serious harm to Ulster’s chances of winning the Magners league. Munster on the other hand can look forward to their next outing in the Heineken cup,- next friday night versus the Llanelli Scarlets at Stradey Park in Wales. The game will be shown live on Sky sports, kick off 7.30pm…. Somehow me thinks we will be writing a bit on this around the end of the week!

And finally a bit of a change from the regulars of soccer and rugby and a bit of catching up on all things boxing. As most of you are aware Limerick’s own Andy Lee is making a bit of a name for himself over the other side of the pond as his professional career takes off. Andy was boxing in New York last week on the undercard of the Brian Duddy fight at Madison Square garden. He scored his eight professional victory with a third round knockout of former WBA world champ Carl Daniels. And when we say knockout we mean it – Daniels was out cold for five minutes after the right hook!! have a look at it for yourselves below.

Here is one I have been meaning to add for a while, but never gotten around to it.

Run by The Swearing Lady, the blog covers everything to do with Irish Politics and current event. A well written and at times very humerous look on modern Irish life.

Anyway, you can visit Sweary at her blog by clicking here. Also listed under blogroll.

Gardai are seeking the assistance of the public with their investigation into the attempted kidnapping of a woman in Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare shortly before 1100hrs this morning.

They are also looking for information on a green van which had three male occupants, which was said to be “acting suspiciously” in the area around the time the incident is said to have taken place.

More from BreakingNews.ie

Two teenagers, armed with hurleys walked into a Monaleen shop at 0700 hrs on Friday. and stole a quantity of cash and some lottery scratch cards.

One of the youths was arrested shortly afterwards and appeared before Limerick District Court.

The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, being under 18 and all, was remanded on bail to appear before the court again on Tuesday.

A second youth, understood to be from Garryowen, was arrested and is being questioned in relation to the robbery.

Meanwhile, Gardai are investigating a break-in at the Spar shop on Henry Street.

Thieves gained access to the shop through the roof on Thursday nightand made off with €2,000 worth of cigarettes and a quantity of cash.o

Two women were given six months in jail this week for assaulting two female Gardai on High Street last year.

Vicky Ryan (27) Round House Apartments, High Street and Nancy Doran (27) of Steamboat Quay were acting the maggot at Ryan’s apartment building and were reported to Gardai by their Latvian neighbours.

When the two women were informed that the Guards had been called, Ryan kicked in the door of the Latvian family’s apartment. She then took a sweeping brush and started to whack her own apartment door to make it look like the Latvian family attacked her own apartment.

When Gardai Roberta Guest and Louise Kingston arrived, they found Doran smashing plates on the floor of Ryan’s apartment.

On seeing the Gardai, Ryan decided to have a hop off of Gda Guest, hitting her “more than a dozen times” with the metal handle of the sweeping brush.

The two women hurled abuse at both the Gardai and the Latvian family while they were being arrested. The Latvians were told to “go back to their own country.”

Doran was charged with assault after she pushed Gda Kingston out the back of a paddywaggon on the same night.

Representing the two women, solicitor and election candidate John Devane told the court that his clients were very remorseful and had repeatedly apologised to the two Gardai.

The demon drink was blamed for their behaviour.

Handing down a six month sentence each for the women, Judge Tom O’Donnel expressed shock at what he called an “outrage.”

He also criticised the level of fear which was instilled in the four children who were present on the night. Two of the children were the offspring of the defendants.

It must have felt like the end of the world for some as yet unnamed local criminal when he was forced to cough up over €6,000 to Limerick City Council in order to retrieve six of eight horses belonging to him which were impounded by the council.

Under Limerick by-laws, it is illegal to have a horse within the city’s boundaries unless it is for a special event. Written permission is also required from the council.

The Moyross man had the eight horses in stables in the back garden of his home. When the horses were being seized, Gardai also found a handgun and a small quantity of ammunition on the property.

The horses were housed in cork until they were reclaimed.

As well as coughing up the cash, the individual had to provide a sworn affidavit promising not to house the horses within the city limits.

Proof that there was land availible outside the city had to be provided, as well as evidence that they had the permission from the land owner.

The other two horses are still impounded.

According to the Limerick Leader city edition, the council outsorced the impounding of horses after ceveral threats were made to employees of the Limerick based company who used to handle it.