The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

We posted a few days ago about Aer Lingus and their not so huge commitment to Shannon but a bit of good news today after the declaration from Ryanair that they are to add new routes in November. Ryanair is to introduce eight new routes from Shannon Airport to European destinations which will bring the airline’s total number of destinations from Shannon to 31. Shannon Airport’s Martin Moroney said Ryanair now carried more than half of all the passengers travelling through Shannon.
The new routes are to Birmingham, Dublin, Fuertaventura in the Canary Islands, Kaunas in Lithuania, Luton, Leeds, Riga and Tenerife. The expansion includes Ryanair’s first domestic route from Shannon to Dublin. The airline will also increase frequency on its Edinburgh and Manchester routes.

Hopefully the powers that be at Shannon manage to keep Michael O”Leary sweet but it looks as if they are doing a good job so far!

UPDATE (tks Gary)

Birmingham Nov 1 x Daily
Dublin Nov 2 x Daily
F’ventura Nov 1 x Weekly
Kaunas Nov 2 x Weekly
Leeds Nov 3 x Weekly
Luton Nov 1 x Daily
Riga Nov 2 x Weekly
Tenerife Nov 1 x Weekly

From November Ryanair will close 3 routes from Shannon to Bournemouth, Lodz and Rome while Biarritz, Carcassonne, Milan, Murcia, Nantes and Venice will operate on a summer only basis (Apr – Oct) to accommodate these 8 new routes.

It has been talked about for a long while but tonight it has been announced that over 400 jobs are to go at Dell’s operations in Ireland as part of the computer maker’s worldwide ongoing restructuring which will see 8000 jobs lost globally. The lay-offs represent nearly 10% of Dell’s global work force of just over 88,000 people. Exact numbers for losses in Limerick are not yet known but will more than likely be in the hundreds.

Related:

Fears for Irish Jobs as Dell cuts global staff – Irish Examiner

An unusual incident being reported in this evening’s city edition of the Limerick Leader.

Athief who was found in the wardrobe of a house on Edward street was so grateful that his victim was willing to let him go, he felt it necessary to give her a big hug before leaving.

The sequence of events happened when the woman who ras renting the house sat down to eat when she heard noises coming from upstairs.

On going upstairs to investigate, she found a youth wearing a hoodie in her wardrobe. After screaming at him to “get out” and whacking him with the door of the wardrope several times, the would-be thief pleaded with her to let him go.

The youth, who was believed to be between 15 and 16 years old, was allowed to leave the bedroom but when getting downstairs, found that the front door and the windows were locked.

The woman let him out the front door, but before leaving, the burgler gave her a big hug before making his escape.

The woman told Gardai that the youth smelt of alcohol.

Roxboro Gardai are investigating the incident.

the 45th Aldi store in the republic will open its doors this morning at 9am just off the Dublin Rd, between the Parkway and Groody Roundabouts. In Gaa news, the gaelic grounds out the ennis rd will host the munster football semi final between Cork and tipperary, kick off at 3.30pm. Election candidates have until today to have taken down their posters or else they can face a fine up to 3000 euros if convicted. i wonder can they bring charges against them for not removing cable ties!! A film that Pat Shortt was involved with called “Garage” won an award at the Cannes film festival over the weekend. The film was awarded the prestigious Cicae Art and Essai cinema prize in the category of Directors fortnight by the CIcae Jury which stands for the international confederation of art house cineamas…. jaysus thats a bit of a mouthful…. anyway the film is based on a caretaker of a petrol station on the outskirts of a town in the mid west of Ireland. One of the stars of the film is a student from Mungret, Conor Ryan who attends Crescent comp college. Congrats to them all anyway.

Sheila Murray, the mother of two children who were the victims of an arson attack last September, will not face smuggling charges after the DPP decided that she was not the person they were looking for.

In February, a man who Ms Murray visited was found later to be in possession of hash in his prison cell.

Ms Murray asserted that he had had the banned drug prior to her visiting him, and that the media had assumed it was her that gave him the drugs.

After their detailed investigation, the Director of Public Prosecutions have decided that Ms. Murray will not be facing charges in relation to the incident.

Gavin and Millie previously on Limerick Blogger

The owner of the Subway franchise located on O’Connell Street proved difficult to find after it emerged this week that he does not have planning permission for his eating house.

The Sandwich eatery located at 123 O’Connell Street opened without permission from the Planning Department and the franchise owner is being accused of giving the Liam Keane salute to the City Council.

The owner was sent a warning letter two weeks ago after the fast food outlet opened, and the owner has six weeks from the issue date of the letter to seek planning permission, otherwise he will find himself in front of a judge.

Fianna Fail Councillor Kieran O’Hanlan let rip into the franchise owner in an interview with the Limerick Leader, which was published today.

“They have effectively stuck two fingers up at Limerick City Council and that is not acceptable.” he told the paper.

When the paper tried to contact the owner, the reporter making the call was told that he was “out of the country.”

Funny that, just starting a business one would think that they would stick around to see the money roll in. The novelty must have worn off fairly quickly for them to leave the country in such a hurry.

Some good news for Shannon airport with the release of the Winter schedule from Aer Lingus which is is to continue to operate daily direct flights from Shannon to New York and Boston. Confirming the airline’s winter schedule today, Aer Lingus Commercial Director, Enda Corneille said :’Under the new Open Skies agreement we see great potential and continued opportunity for Shannon airport’.

Martin Moroney, Airport Director at Shannon, said today that the Airport Authority is making every effort to ensure that year-round service is maintained by offering reduced airport charges to transatlantic carriers during the winter ‘off-season’ schedule and by investing in a new US customs system.

He said the loyalty of the regional business and travel community, and tourism promotion in the US would be key elements in Shannon’s success.

Limerick 37 had a comfortable win at home in the eircom First division tuesday night against visitors Wexford Youths. The blues put three past the boys from Wexford without reply, with a brace from Brian “Chucka” Buckley in the 35th and 67th minute and a third from substitute Joey Moloney in the last minute of regular time. All the goals scored were from headers so it is fair to say that Limerick posed a severe aerial threat to the Wexford defence! The match was played in front of a crowd of 618 people on a dry sunny evening. The result keeps Limerick in the hunt in third place in the first division and was their biggest win of the season. The draw for the second round of the Ford (previously Carslberg) FAI cup takes place on this Thursday and will be shown live on the rte 6 o clock news. Hopefully the blues will get a good home draw to bring a crowd to Jackman Park. It has to be said that a good atmosphere is developing at the ground with the home fans learning to show their vocal support more often. During the second half as Joey Moloney was warming up prior to his coming on as a substitute the crowd were chanting his name down at the stand end and when he scored his goal he acknowledged the fans down there which went down well. Small stuff maybe, but this is the type of thing that helps the home team build a rapport with the fans who in turn will support the team more vocally. The next game for the blues is away to Finn Harps and after that there is a three week break in the league before the next home game versus Kilkenny City.

The health and Safety authority must be contacted 28 days before a building that contains asbestos can be demolished.

However someone ignored this rule, and a few days ago, decided it would be a good time to demolish an old bakery on Wall lane in Rathkeale, which contained asbestos in the roof.

Now, the County Council have ordered a halt to work on the demolition site, and the health and Safety authority are to carry out inspection of the site before they will allow the public near it.

As a result, there have been traffic diversions in the area.

Irish Examiner has the full story.

It is looking like those who set fire to a house on Byrne Avenue in Prospect by way of a petrol bomb did so because they were refused entry into the afters party of the wedding the house’ owners were attending.

The residents of the house were attending the wedding of a relative who was getting married. When the men were refused entry into the party taking place at a city hotel, they sought revenge by setting fire to the house of one of the bride’s relatives.

The 18 year old babysitter who was in the house with the nine month old baby when the petrol bomb came through the front window was awoken by the sound of breaking glass, managed to grab the baby and make her escape downstairs and through the back door of the house.

The men who tried to gain entry into the wedding party were on the hunt for late night drink.

Gardai have told Jimmy Woulfe of the Irish Examiner that the attack was not feud related.

With any luck CCTV footage from the hotel might identify those who attacked the house, and some arrests can be made.