The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

Limerick: S.Moynihan,A.McNamara,R.Collins,J.Garvey,,G.McNamara,A.Sheehan(Capt.),
M.Dooley, V.Sheehan, D.Fitzpatrick, E.O’Brien, M.Nash, N.Mulcahy, M.Keating, M.Kelly,O.Curtin.

Manager: Ciaran Carey.

Limerick 1-10 Cork 2-7

In an exciting encounter today at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Limerick and Cork will have to meet again to decide the winners of the Gala All Ireland Championship 2007.A last gasp point ensured Limerick a replay.
This is the B Camogie Championship final. Limerick has made great strides recently since former intercounty player Ciaran Carey became their manager. Limerick won the Division 1B National League title earlier this year. Limerick will now be playing in the top flight next term.There have been impressive displays already from youngsters Sile Moynihan,Aideen McNamara,Janet Garvey and Niamh Mulcahy .Sisters Aoife and Vera Sheehan ,Meadhbh Nash,Marie Keating and Rose Collins are the more experience players in the current squad.Exciting times ahead for the Limerick girls.

Behold! The Shannon-Heathrow Hall of Shame

Where applicable, the politicians name will be linked to their contact information.

Michael Creed. (Fine Gael) Cork North West. Name absent from list of voters.

Michael D’Arcy (Fine Gael) Wexford. Name absent from list of voters.

Damien English (Fine Gael) Meath West. Name absent from list of voters

Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) Roscommon/South Leitrim. Name absent from list of voters.

Charles Flanegan (Fine Gael) Laois Offally. Name absent from list of voters.

Paul Kehoe (Fine Gael) Wexford. Name absent from list of voters.

Joe McHugh (Fine Gael) Donegal North East. Name absent from list of voters.

Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael) Dublin West. Name absent from list of voters.

Jack Wall (Labour Party) Kildare South. Name absent from list of voters.

Unsurprisingly, members of the Green Party and the only PD deputy present Noel Greelish voted with the Government.

Here is a list of Independents, who either voted in favour of the Government’s abandonment of Shannon, or who did not vote.

Beverly Flynn (Mayo) Voted with the Government.

Jackie Healy-Rae (Kerry South) Name absent from list of voters.

Michael Lowry (Tipperary South) Voted with the Government.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central) Voted with the Government

Dan Sullivan has requested that local government TDs who voted in favour of the motion also have3 their names added to the list, so here goes.

Where applicable, links to contact information for each local TD chave been added.

Niall Collins (Fianna Fail) Limerick West. Voted in Favour of Shannon Motion.

John Cregan (Fianna Fail) Limerick West. Voted in Favour of Shannon motion.

Timmy Dooley (Clare) Voted in favour of Shannon Motion.

Frank Fahey (Fianna Fail) Galway West. Voted in favour of Government motion.

Maire Hoctor (Fianna Fail) Tipperary North. Voted in favour of Government motion

Tony Killeen (Fianna Fail) Clare. Voted in favour of government motion.

Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail) Galway East. Name absent from list of voters.

Tom McElistrim (Fianna Fail) Kerry North. Voted in favour of Government Motion.

Mattie McGrath (Fianna Fail) Tipperary South. Voted in favour of Government Motion.

Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail) Tipperary South. Voted in favour of Government Motion.

Eamon O’Cuiv (Fianna Fail) Galway West. Voted in favour of Government Motion

Willie O’Dea (Fianna Fail) Limerick East. Voted in favour of Government Motion.

John O’Donoghue (Fianna Fail) Kerry South. Name absent from list of voters.

Update John O’Donoghue is not entitled to vote as he is the Ceann Comhairle, and only casts a vote when the voting is tied, which, it was not on this occasion.

Peter Power (Fianna Fail) Limerick East. Voted in favour of Government Motion.

Noel Treacy (Fianna Fail) Galway East. Voted in favour of Government Motion.

Noel Greelish (Progressive Democrats) Galway West. Voted in favour of Government Motion.

The Hunt Museum was today formally cleared of handling art stolen from the Jews by Nazis.

The Nazi-hunting group, the Simon Wesenthall foundation had made claims that the late John and Gertrude Hunt, founders of the Hunt Museum, were Nazi spies and were engaged in the traffiking of stolen artwork.

However, a report, which is the culmination of a three year long investigation, not only clears the Hunts of any wrong doing, also criticised the Wesenthall foundation for making claims based on threadbare evidence.

The report was written by renowned UK based expert Lynn Nicholas, who has written books such as “The Rape of Europe” was published today by the Royal Irish Acadamy.

The wesenthall foundation were also criticised for making baseless personally abusive statements against the Hunts.

The sole basis for the claim by the Wesenthall foundation was a single file on Gertrude Hunt, which the Irish Army had collated on her. Such files were kept on all Germans in Ireland during World War II and are accessible by the public now.

The file, which was the only document in the posession of the Wesenthal foundation, contained absolutely no evidence that the Hunts had purchased any art which had been stolen from Jewish Holocaust victims.

The full story on this can be found here.

The Nazis pilfered the possessions, including art, from the six million Jews who lost their lives during the holocaust. The fact that none of it ended up in the wrongful possession of John and Gertrude Hunt comes too late for their son John Jr., who spent the last year of his life trying to clear his parents’ name.

Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey made quips about shooting during the speech of a Midwestern TD’s submission in the debate on Shannon Airport yesterday in Leinster House.

Sinn Fein Kerry TD Martin Ferris had just finnished his contribution when Minister Dempsey said, “At least we did not blow them up or shoot them.”

Now as unlikely as I am to vote for Sinn Fein, and as much as i personally dislike Martin Ferris in particular. The unwelcome truth of the matter here is that several thousand people got up off their airses one sunny day in May and put a number one beside his name. Therefore he is representing the people who voted for him.

For a party like Fianna Fail, who on the previous day lauded the Northern Ireland Peace Process as one of the things which should be remembered when deciding whether or not the house had confidence in Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach, is completely hypocritical.

It shows two things lacking in both Minister Dempsey’s position on the privatisation of Aer Lingus and his character in general.

Firstly, he was not able to counter the arguement that the Government should have seen this coming (given the wording of the articles of association, maybe they did) that he had to resort to irrelevancies.

Dempsey’s conduct was reminiscent of what might have been seen in the days when, while the Northern Ireland assembly were dealing with issues of education and other bread and butter stuff, the likes of the DUP were engaged in obstructionism.

Now while Ferris’ position on matters relating to the conduct of the Provisional IRA, particularly his views on the killing of Garda Jerry McCabe should not be forgotten or ignored. There is a time and a place for it.

If Minister Dempsey wanted to engage Martin Ferris on his position in relation to bombs and guns, then he should have submitted his own motion to the house.

Fianna Fail were themselves accused of being involved in running guns to the IRA in the 1970s, which lead to Charles Haughey, a man later elected as leader of the same party, being scandalised. Yet you don’t hear much mention of it any time a Fianna Fail TD stands up to make a speech.

I do want to see acts of violence not already dealt with, to be dealt with. I want to see the two on-the-runs suspected of being involved in the killing of Jerry McCabe brought before a judge. I want to see those that are in prison to serve their required sentences. However, there is a time and a place for discussion on the IRA and related matters, and this was not it.

Sentencing in the case against Michael Collins, the former Limerick West Fianna Fail TD who was found guilty of obtaining a tax clearance certificate under false pretences in 2002, is imminent.

Sentencing was adjourned until after lunch after the jury of seven men and five women spent an hour deliberating before returning the guilty verdict.

Sentencing has been adjourned in this case until October 9th. Collins made no comment to the media as he left the Circuit Criminal Court this afternoon.

The opening of Limerick’s Deaf Community Centre coincided with Sign Language Awareness Week. Speakers included Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea and Chairman of the Irish Deaf Association John Bosco Conama.

The new centre is located at 96A O’Connell Street, Limerick, next to the Ulster Bank

Collette will no doubt have photos later today.

After two days of a trial, the Jury in the fraud case against former Fianna Fail TD, Michael Collins, will be sent to sonsider their verdict today.

Collins, a former Limerick West Fianna Fail TD, denies claims that he obtained a Tax Clearance certificate under false pretences.

The court heard evidence from officials from the Revenue Commissioners office in Limerick as well as staff from the AIB bank in Kilmallock.

It is claimed that Collins failed to declare a bogus non-residential bank account, which, it is alleged was in the name of Joseph and Ann Collins, resident in Surrey, United Kingdom.

AMore from the Examiner

The jury is expected to reach a verdict this afternoon..

In favour : (government) 68
Against (Opposition) 67

The government motion Re Shannon Airport, basically saying a lot, but promising to do nothing, has passed by a single vote.

I hope to have a list of those who voted against saving the Shannon-Heathrow route, and a list of those who did not bother to even turn up to vote on this issue, later.

The Dail debate concerning Shannon-Heathrow and Aer Lingus’ decision to take Shannon’s Heathrow slots and move them to Belfast is currently under way.

It is expected that Deputies Collins, Cregan, Power and O’Dea will back the abandonment of Shannon by Aer Lingus.

Both Peter Power and John Cregan, speaking in the Dail chamber, have asked why Shannon’s Airport Authority were only able to come up with incentives after Aer Lingus’ decision to pull out of Shannon.

Dan Neville, (FG) accused the government of being economical with the truth, citing assurances made last year by the previous transport minister that the Government would intervene to protect national interests, prior to the privatisation of Aer Lingus

Dierdre Clune, TD made the point that there would be 33 daily flights from the NorthEast part of the island to Heathrow, while the South and Southwest would only have five.

Tom Hayse asked the Government why they had not appointed two board members to the board of Aer Lingus. He called on them to make the appointments, call an EGM and reverse the decision.

Noall Collins, FF while condemning the Aer Lingus Decision, he stated that he would accept the Government’s strategy of non intervention.

Beverly Cooper Flynn (independent) claimed that any intervention by the government to reverse the decision would distort the market for other regions in the country. She said that Knock airport are in talks to secure London routes, including Heathrow, and intervening to assist Shannon would put Knock at a disadvantage.

Labour party Michael D Higgins, calling the Government’s motion as weak, pointed out that because the Heathrow slots were allocated as part of intergovernmental talks, they were not the property of the airline. He claimed that this was re-affirmed by the House of Commons in 2003.

It was a case of “I told you so” for Sinn Fein’s Martin Ferris, pointing out that his party had warned of that state interests would be lost if Aer Lingus was to be privatised. He accused the government of misleading the people, and accused them also of being economical with the truth. He described what he called a “whispering campaign” claiming that those in the midwest were opposed to a peace dividend as dispicable. He welcomed a Belfast-Heathrow route, but said it should not be at the expense of Shannon. A Fianna Failler could be heard on the live feed making reference to “shooting” following Ferris’ speech.

Jimmy Deenihan (Fine Gael) pointed out the impact of the loss of Shannon-Heathrow on his constituency. He claimed that between 25 and 30 percent of customers at the famous Ballybunion Golf Course come via the Shannon to Heathrow route. He warned Fianna Fail midwest TDs that they would be judged on whether or not there were four Heathrow slots on January 1st.

Paidraig McCormack, asked the government why were they holding on to their share in Aer Lingus, why are they not using it to intervene. He claimed that 12,000 visitors to Galway come through Shannon each year (presumably from Heathrow). “What has happened at Shannon now can happen at Cork and Dublin at the will of the Executive of Aer Lingus.” he said.

A dispute has now erupted in the chamber over the order of business. Noel Dempsey is now speaking, with continued heckles in the background

Dempsey: This decision by Aer Lingus will not mean that the Shannon region will become a wasteland.

Dempsey : Aer lingus within it’ts legal right to make the decision. Government “procluded” from intervening in the move.

Noel Dempsey falsely claimed that a Fine Gael deputy in the Mid-West suggested that Cork slots (note the plural) be moved to Shannon. He neglected to mention that one of his own party colleagues, Tony Killeen made a similar suggestion on RTE news days after the Aer Lingus decision.

Dempsey: “The slots are not being disposed of, or are not being transposed.” “It is difficult for the opposition to listen to the truth”

Dempsey falsely claimed that it was claimed that 100,000 jobs would be lost as a result of the move of Heathrow slots to Belfast. This claim was never made, the number is closer to 10,000.

Dempsey: Shannon is well connected to London Gatwick and Luton.

Motion re Shannon and the development of the midwest region has now gone to a vote…