The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

The Deaf Community centre in Limerick, located at 95A O’Connell Street. to coincide with Irish Sign Language Awareness Week.

The opening ceremony will take place at 1900 hrs.

From the blurb

The Deaf Community Centre (DCC) has just been recently established. Its main aims are to cater for the needs of all the Deaf communities in the Mid-West Region. DCC encourages the Deaf Community to become actively involved in Educational,Social,Cultural and Community activities through the use of Irish Sign Language (ISL).

ISL is the first language of the Irish Deaf Community, and DCC offers all its services through ISL. DCC offers free access to the internet,Videophone, Multichannel TV, information Centre and Deaf Adult Education,which includes, Adult Literacy,Computers and ISL levels 123.

DCC also actively encourages social interaction by the establishment of the following groups, Deaf Women’s Group, Deaf Gym, Deaf Scouts, Deaf Youth

Those whishing to attend should contact Sandra Morrissey (Development Officer) on 061469854 or 0867348641

A local newspaper is claiming that there could be as many as 700 jobs lost at a major employer in the Mid-West employer.

The Limerick Post published the story this morning on their front page. While they did not state which company was involved, they did state that it was not Dell Computers.

The unnamed employer is said to have been in the midwest for the past two decades.

From the Post.

Tyco electronics, based in Shannon has announced that it is to wind down its operations in Clare over the next two years resulting in 178 job losses. Some twenty people in research and development will retain their jobs. The company has decided to transfer its manufacturing capabilities to sister companies in China, Mexico and India.

A man has escaped injury after the second shooting in St. Mary’s Park in a week happened on Tuesday.

The shots were fired trough a glass door of the house at Assumpta Street at 2020 hrs.

It is alleged that one of the notorious feuding gangs are behind this shooting.

Meanwhile, the victim of last Sunday’s shooting was reputed to have given the name of his attacker to those attending him when he thought he was going to die from his injuries.

Having made a sufficient recovery, he is believed to have refused to give Gardai a name this Tuesday.

He had to undergo emergency surgery at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital on Sunday after he received life-threatening injuries to the back and stomach.

Aer Lingus could find themselves in court after Ryanair revealed that it has referred their second EGM rebuttal to their legal team.

Ryanair, who are the largest shareholder in the former state airline, have twice called for an extraordinary general meeting to reverse the decision to move Shannon Airport’s Heathrow slots to Belfast. Twice, Aer Lingus have rejected the request on the grounds that it would be in breach of competition law.

Ryanair secretary, Jim Callaghan, in a letter to Aer Lingus, described the claim as “absurd.”

Indeed, to follow your ridiculous line of argument, you and your fellow directors of Aer Lingus would have already breached competition law by having permitted Ryanair to participate and vote at this year’s AGM (annual general meeting). Aer Lingus appears to invoke competition concerns only when it suits your purposes, regardless of how absurd or legally untenable these claims are.

The letter also contained an indication that this may all end up in court.

We have referred this unlawful behaviour to our legal advisors and will consider with them whether we should pursue our shareholder rights under the Companies Act 1963 or through the Courts. In the interim we will continue to closely monitor the actions of the board and management of Aer Lingus Group PLC.

CNN Money has more here and here.

A man in his 70s has died after he was hit by an articulated lorry on the N7 this afternoon.

The accident occurred near the Yellow Bridge Inn at 1310 hrs when the man was who had just left the Inn was making his way to his car.

He was rushed to the Mid-Western hospital in Nenagh, but later died.

He is understood to be from Dublin, however his name has not yet been released.

Meanwhile, the man who died in an accident on the N69 was named as Mark Ryan (21) of Bawnreigh, Askeaton. His funeral arrangements can be found here.

Part of the ongoing work by the HSE to make the bigger hospitals into SUPER hospitals- or at least thats what it appears to be anyway, unfortunately if you dont live close to Limerick you are going to have to travel. 8 Hospitals are being designated throughout the country, those of relevance to us are Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick. However 13 hospitals which currently provide treatment are to be closed, those in /close to the midwest are Mallow, Nenagh, Portiuncala(Ballinasloe) and Ennis. There is a certain merit to basing proper funded and expertise in major locations but unfortunately this is not always to the benefit of the patient, as those living distances away from the major hospitals are going to suffer extra journey times and distress as a result.

Plans for the regeneration of St. Mary’s Park were met with a mixed reaction from local residents at a meeting yesterday, where proposals for the plan were presented to them.

At the presentation, it was proposed that the 500 houses from the estate be razed to the ground and be replaced by an urban development comprising of 2,500 residential units, affordable housing, shopping and sporting facilities.

The Kings island community Centre was thronged with people wanting to see the proposals yesterday morning, it is reported in the Limerick Leader.

The 95 minute presentation was followed by a Questions and answers session.

Although the proposal to have bars and restaurants on the waterfront as part of the regeneration was met with amusement from those present. One local resident quipped “We won’t have to go to Lanzarote any more so.”

More from the Leader.

A long time reader of this blog, Cupid Stunt is a member of Limerick’s diaspora, originally from Limerick, now living overseas.

This is his personal blog, which will be added to our list of Limerick Blogs.

If you have a blog which is related to Limerick, please let us know about it and we will add it to our blogroll.

Also be advised that a clean up of the blogroll will take place before the end of the week. Blogs that do not have new posts on them for the last six months will be removed from the list.

Time : 1645 hrs
Channel : Oireactas Website
Duration : 3.5 hrs approximately

If you are looking to watch the Dail debate on Shannon-Heathrow, which is due to take place this afternoon in Leinster house, you can do so by visiting the Oireactas Website where video and audio streaming is availible

Here is the link to the webstream page.

The debate on the Shannon-Heathrow issue has been postponed until tomorrow after Fine Gael tabled a no-confidence motion in Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Dail today.

Considering the fact that many people travelled to Dail Eireann specifically for this debate, this is a show of disregard on the part of Fine Gael, who could have easily tabled their motion tomorrow morning.

The Fine Gael No Confidence motion was tabled after details of the Taoiseach’s financial affairs were probed in the ongoing Mahon Tribunal over the last couple of weeks, while the Shannon-Heathrow crisis has been running since the start of August

h/t DPR for the update.