The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

On the day that the groups for the pool stages of the Heineken cup are to be drawn there is a report in the Irish times that if true is going to stir a lot of red blood in Munster. The Times state that the Munster branch have decided to sell the naming rights to the redeveloped ground at Thomond Park which will reopen in November when stage one of the development is due to be completed. Doubtless, many of the faithful will not be too happy at the thought of losing the Thomond Park name. However if it brings in the bucks and the team are successful many will think that it may be worth it. let the flame war begin in the comments!

The groups have been announced and they are tough if you are a Munster or Leinster supporter (not that we really care about Leinster you know loike)

POOL 1: Benetton Treviso, London Irish, Perpignan, Newport Gwent Dragons
POOL 2: Ospreys, Gloucester Rugby, Bourgoin, Ulster Rugby
POOL 3:Stade Francais Paris, Bristol Rugby, Cardiff Blues, Harlequins
POOL 4:Glasgow Warriors, Saracens, Biarritz Olympique, Viadana
POOL 5:London Wasps, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Llanelli Scarlets, Munster
POOL 6:Leinster, Leicester Tigers, Toulouse, Edinburgh Rugby

Henry Street Gardai are investigating the possibility that the body found in the Shannon at Merchants Quay is that of a missing University of Limerick student.

The Limerick Chronicle reported today that the student had been reported missing to Gardai prior to the discovery of the body.

The paper also states that a post mortem was due to take place later yesterday evening.

However, there are no further details on the find.

Limerick 37 won their 2nd round Ford Fai cup replay against the Wexford youths tonight. A headed goal by Davy Wall from a set piece on 63 minutes seperated the sides. Limerick now progress to the third round and into the last 16 of the cup. League duty recommences on friday with Kilkenny city being the visitors to Jackman par, ko 7.45pm

An incident at the Irish Cement factory which covered Raheen, Dooradoyle and Mungeret in grey dust back in October has resulted in them having to pay out over €12,000.

The bill comes after they pleaded guilty to illegal dust emissions, contrary to their licence at the district court yesterday.

The court was told that the leak of Cement Clinker occurred when a hole developed in the cooler of a kiln. The emissions lasted an hour before the facility was shut down.

It was also heard by Judge Tom O’Donnell that Irish Cement, who operate the Cement Factory offered those affected by the leak, free car washes and even paid for some to have their house windows cleaned.

In all, the Environmental Protection Agency and Irish Cement received a total of 2,000 complaints.

Luckily, due to the late hour in which the leak took place, there were no medical implications arising out of the incident.

Judge O’Donnell, describing the incident as potentially catastrophic, fined Irish Cement €1,250 (That is the equivalent of ten illegal posters) and also ordered them to pay the costs of the EPA investigation into the incident, which ran to €11,555.

We got this in the e-mail from the good folks at Eddie Rockets on the Ennis Road, to celebrate their launch, they put together this humongous hamburger. Who says they don’t look like that in the pictures :)

Anyway, the response to the competition has been phenomenal, but not everyone has entered, (WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE) so have a go, you can find details on our competition page, on how to win Eddies goodies.

Gary Campion, the man accused of murdering Fat Frankie Ryan last September, has been sent forward for trial at the current sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Limerick.

Campion (24) from Pineview Gardens previously faced the same charge earlier in the year, however the District Court tossed the case out because of delays with the book of evidence.

Fat Frankie Ryan (21) was shot in the head as he sat in a car near his Moyross home in September 2005.

Limerick City Centre will be a hive of activity this and every Sunday for the next ten weeks as the pedestrian areas of Bedford Row and Thomas street become the summertime Riverside market.

There will be food art and fashon and was launched today by Mayor Joe Leddin.

The first of these markets will commence at 1100 hrs on Sunday.

The Mayor has also called on businesses in the city centre to open to bring people into town.

Limerick finished in 34th place by the campaign group IBAL (Irish Business against litter).Limerick had lost points as its approach roads had been found to have a litter problem.Despite the findings IBAL has revealed that litter levels have improved compared to last year.

Brendan Nix is whining in the Limerick Leader today about a client of his, who was accused of involvement in an arson attack on two children, because he had to make a 250 mile round trip from St Patrick’s Institute in Dublin to the Courthouse in Limerick.

Boo fucking hoo for him, that is nothing compared to the 250 mile round trips the two children will have to make from Limerick to the Children’s hospital in Dublin for several months to come, nor does it compare to the 250 mile round trips on the same route members of their family had to make, all the while not knowing if they were going to be taking their injured family members home in a wooden box the next time around.

Our poor 16 year old darling had to get up at 0530 hrs every morning during his trial. meanwhile the victims in the attack were only able to get some sleep after a mountain of painkillers and sedatives because of the pain they were in.

Yet this little….so – and – so thinks he has it bad!

Note to those wishing to discuss this story By direction of the Circuit Court, the victims in this attack must not be named. Any attempt to do so will result in blacklisting of that user.

Two sisters, both from Clonlong in Southill, found themselves €600 out of pocket each after they were caught after a shoplifting adventure in Southill.

According to the Limerick Leader, a group of women entered the Centra Store in Clarecastle, stole several items, and made off in different vehicles.

One of the vehicles, carrying the two women, was stopped on the dual carriageway between Shannon and Limerick.

One of the women, Sue Ellen Casey (26) of 2 Clonlong, Southill, pleaded guilty before Shannon District Court to handling stolen items to the value of €121 from the store.

her sister, Mary Casey, (19) from the same address, pleaded guilty to stealing the items.

The court was told that neither of the defendants had any previous convictions and the shoplifting incident was down to “misadventure.”

In the end, both were fined €600 each.