The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

Our lady of Lourdes Church complete with Christmas Day fog.

Fatal traffic accident: A fatal road traffic incident has occurred in County Limerick yesterday evening. A man in his 30s, a pedestrian, was hit by a car near the town of Morroe. This is a developing story at the time of posting, and there will be an update later.

UPDATE 1700 hrs: The victim of last night’s road traffic accident in Morroe has been named as John Sheehan, a single man aged 32 who was originally from Pennywell in Garryowen, but had moved to Morroe in the last couple of weeks. Gardai at Bruff are asking the public to help them with information relating to the incident.

The Fog: One flight from Shannon to Heathrow had to be cancelled because of severe fog in the United Kingdom. The Aer Lingus flight was one of four from Ireland which was affected by the weather.

Limerick City ,Croom and Adare Christmas Video

Edit by squid –

Firstly, Sean, what a video, that is massive. brilliant stuff.

I just want to interject on this to firstly wish everyone a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

I would personally like to thank the Admins of the site for their contributions over 2007.

A special mention and note of gratitude should go to those who stepped up in June of this year and agreed to help us moderate the comments. I am indebted to each and every one of you for the help.

I would also like to send seasons greetings out to all the other bloggers who have linked to us throughout the lifetime of the blog, not just 2007. There are nearly fifty Limerick bloggers on our blog roll, and I would encourage everyone who has a story to tell, or experience to share, or even a hobby, be it trainspotting or cookery, or politics or music, to blog it. You will be doing your city and county proud by letting the voices of Limerick be heard.

And lastly, to those of you who visit the site every day and gove your imput to the stories on here.

Happy Christmas everyone, and a prosperous new year.

On March 7th 1921 former mayor of Limerick, Michael O’Callaghan was shot dead by unknown assassins A half hour later, the incumbent Mayor, George Clancy was shot dead in his bed. His wife, who made an effort to shield her husband was also injured by gunshot. After the attack, it took Mayor Clancy an hour to die from his injuries.

Today, both Clancy Strand and O’Callaghan Strand are named in their honour.

In 1921, the murder of the first citizen of Limerick was reported the world over. As is usually the case, while looking for one thing on the internet, another thing tends to present itself.

Here is how the news was reported in the New York Times.

Click Here to read. PDF format.

Non-refundable: Some catching up first, Anthony Kelly, one of three men cleared of the murder of Docs nightclub doorman Brian Fitzgerald, has had his application for a refund of his costs relating to the murder trial, rejected by Justice Peter Charlton. Two other men who were cleared of murder at the trial were John and Desmond Dundon. One man, Garry Campion from Moyross, was found guilty earlier this year.

Jesuit’s Church: A claim that mass could still take place after the Jesuit’s church is converted into a leisure centre and restaurant has drawn the ire of worshippers.

Gary McNamara: Back in the news again is Euromillionaire Dolores McNamara’s son Garry, who found himself in hospital with serious injuries after an incident at his Castleconnel home this week.

From the blogs: Cheebah on Kevin Barry’s new book, “There Are Little Kingdoms

Manky Toys: Fustar will be hosting a “Manky Toy Show” tomorrow night at approximately 2100 hrs. Anyone who wants to take part should read the link for details.

Here are the things people are talking about today, the shortest day of the year, Limerick Blogger Birthday and all that. I won’t be doing my usual fifteen posts a day through Christmas but will try to keep at least one post a day.

Anyway, here goes.

Radio Limerick One: Former radio presenter Ger Hannan and former manager of Radio Limerick One, Ger Madden lost a long running libel case against them after a comment referring to Ballineety man Desmond Hayes as a “Ku Klux Klan type of character” went out on air in March 2003. During the five hour hearing, Mr. Hayes said that he had received several phone calls following the broadcast and that he had stopped socialising afterwards. The Circuit court ruled that Mr. Hayes’ reputation had been damaged by the broadcast and awarded him €20,000 plus costs. In court Mr. Hayes denied that was a racist, and denied that a political party he was trying to set up, The Democratic People’s Party, was a racist organisation.

Plans have been revealed to make Caledonian Park in Prospect a 10,000 seater affair. The story is on the front page of the hardcopy Leader (city edition) but not on the site yet.

Jailed: Patrick Russell (18) from Ballylanders received a three year sentence at the Circuit Court this week after he had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of his girlfriend and her stepsister in July 2006

Limerick blogger is two years old today. Just thought you should know .

The White House Poets have been in touch with us and would like to let the public know that there will be no poetry sessions on December 26th and January 2nd.

The Poetry Revival nights will return on January 9th at the White House Pub on O’Connell Street.

Some more news stuff for today as we continue our “Christmas mode”

Redevelopment of Catherine Street: And it’s about time too. Plans include the building of a six storey building as part of the redevelopment of this, one of the shabbiest streets in the city.

It’s official, St. Mary’s Park and Ballinacurra Weston will be included in the regeneration plans laid out by the Fitzgerald Report, a five year plan to tackle anti-social behaviour and social exclusion in the city.

I had grave concerns that the development which was being mooted by Limerick City Council for St. Mary’s Park would have amounted to little more than a land grab. I was concerned that the local residents would be displaced so as private developers could have access to the 90 acres of valuable land in the area. A survey conducted last month by Sinn Féin in St. Mary’s Park showed that only 34% of residents were in favour of the development as proposed by Limerick City Council. The survey also showed that a shocking 93% of residents felt that they were not receiving enough information regarding the plans for the development of the area. It was little wonder with this level of inadequate consultation that such a high proportion of residents were opposed to the Council’s plans

Maurice Quinlivan – Limerick Sinn Fein

Up in smoke: A 21 year old man is helping Gardai with their enquiries after four kilos of cannabis resin were seized from a van at the entrance to St. Mary’s Park yesterday afternoon.

Charged: Paschal Carmody, (60) from Killaloe, County Clare has been charged with fraud, larceny and theft from terminally ill patients at Limerick District Court yesterday. Carmody, formerly a medical doctor, was struck off the register in 2004. He faces 18 sample charges. He was released on bail after the court sitting and the case is likely to be heard in a higher court in the new year, after a further appearance at the District Court in January

Still up the walls, so for the next few days over christmas, it will be one post containing the news stories of the day

Don’t forget, Tonight’s Questions and Answers is coming from Limerick. It can be watched on RTE 1.

Third road death. A third man has died over the weekend on the country’s Roads. Timmy Lenihan, (50) was killed while travelling from Galway to County Kerry yesterday. The motorcycle he was riding was in a collision with a car near Gort in County Galway.

Pipe Bomb in Clonlara: Gardai are staying tight lipped in relation to the location of a pipe bomb found over the weekend in Clonlara. The device was moved from the scene of it’s discovery and difused at Henry Street Garda Station by bomb disposal experts.

Ammunition Charge: James Dillon from Kennedy Park was before a special sitting of Limerick District Court yesterday after he was charged withposession of ammunition on Colbert Avenue. He will be before the court again on Wednesday.

The Last Man: After his uncle Noel Campion was murdered, James Campion felt threatened enough to go and arm himself “for his own protection.” While the judge recognised that he was a “soft target” he felt that he was answerable to the people and the Dail to uphold the law and jailed Campion to three years in prison. The court heard that the defendant was the last male member of his family remaining.