The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

The Munster starting XV for Sunday’s Heineken Cup semi-final clash with Saracens, at Coventry’s Ricoh Stadium is the same as that selected for the quarter final against Gloucester three weeks ago.
On that occasion Tony Buckley was drafted into the starting XV in the minutes runnng up to kick-off after Marcus Horan suffered a back spasm in the warm-up. Horan returns to the starting side and the only changes to the match day squad are on the replacement bench where Federico Pucciariello replaces Buckley, Donnacha Ryan is included ahead of Anthony Foley and Barry Murphy, following on from his impressive showing against Ospreys last weekend, returns after a long absence and gets the nod over Kieran Lewis.
Admitting there were several close calls, coach Declan Kidney said, “I’ve said before that we are very fortunate to have such a strong squad and with nearly everyone available, it’s always a very difficult side to pick. That in turn is a great reflection on the players themselves and on the medical/strength & conditioning staff who have done so well to have the players in the condition they’re in at this stage of the season. We’ve seen a lot of good performances in recent weeks and we believe the selection reflects that.”

Munster: D Hurley; D Howlett, L Mafi, R Tipoki, I Dowling; R O’Gara, T O’Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (capt), A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: F Sheahan, F Pucciariello, M O’Driscoll, D Ryan, P Stringer, P Warwick, B Murphy.

The match has a 3pm kick off on Sunday and is live on sky sports.

In soccer news, Limerick 37 had a good away win last night emerging victorious over Kildare on a scoreline of two to one. After going one down, Tommy Barrett who missed an injury time penalty against Dundalk last week made up for it this week with a 40 yard screamer just before half time. James hayes scored the winner for the blues in the second half. Next up is a game in the league cup away to Cork city on Tuesday before returning to league action at home next friday to Shelbourne

St. Mary’s Park, where today’s seizure took place

Two rifles, a handgun, ammunition and a quantity of heroin have been seized by Gardai during searches in the St. Mary’s Park area of the city.

One man in his 30s was arrested at approximately 1215 hrs today following the find, and is currently being held under section 30 of the Offences against the State act at Mayorstone Garda Station.

The searches today were carried out by local detectives in conjunction with the Emergency Response Unit.

RTE News has more.

Investigations by Gardai are underway following a report of a gun attack yesterday evening near Barry’s Cross, on the outskirts of the city.

It is reported that shortly before 1700 hrs yesterday, a man travelled from Cratloe to Corbally to pick up his child from a creche in the area. A short distance from the creche, a man on a motorcycle is reported to have pulled up along side and fired three shots at the victim who escaped injury.

Lemuna Armadan Osman, the two year old child who died on a transatlantic flight which was diverted to Shannon yesterday, had become ill during her family’s escape from war torn Eritrea.

Armadan Osman Biddo, the child’s father, told an inquest being held in Ennis that he and his family had fled their home in Eritrea due to war.

He said that his daughter first became ill while they were crossing mountains en route to Adis Ababa.

Lamuna received treatment in Adis Ababa for what was thought to be pneumonia. During this time she was given an injection and some cough syrup.

The inquest was also told that Lemuna had become very ill on the flight, vomiting and coughing. She died 40 minutes before the aircraft touched down at Shannon. Both airline stewards and a doctor who was on board tried to save her life, but were unsuccessful.

After the inquest was told that there was no medical evidence availible, it was adjourned until October.

Meanwhile, arrangements are being made for the family to continue their journey to New York with Lamuna’s remains.

Sending this cost Damien Mulley €7.50 and this is the service he got. With a broken trophy and a cut finger I would like to send a big “Thanks a bloody lot” to An Post.

Edited after 8 cigarettes…

In all honesty, I’ve never heard of them, but having listened to it, it isn’t bad.

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pipp are to perform in the Trinity Rooms on May 9th for those that know who who they are and what they are about.

And for those who don’t here is a chance to get to know who they are and what they are about.

Originally from Essex in the United Kingdom, the duo are now based in London and their mellow sounds have received accolades from the likes of NME magazine as well as Zane Lowe from BBC Radio 1.

Anyway, here one of the videos from their YouTube channel so you can decide for yourself. The song is entitled “Look for the Woman.”

MySpace Music – Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pipp

In an unidentified public house in Kilmallock, it is claimed that an unidentified member of the Limerick hurling team was engaged in a sexual act with an unidentified woman which was captured by an unidentified onlooker who recorded it on his camera phone and posted it on youtube without identifying himself.

The person who wrote the front page story in Thursday’s Limerick leader remains unidentified until you turn to the remainder of the story on Page 2.

At a time when the Irish Independent came under fire for “speculation” isn’t it time our own media should refrain from printing “rumour?”

For the record, the unidentified owner of the unidentified public house in Kilmallock denies that there were any shenanigans of a sexual nature going on in his establishment.

Anyone who knows who did what to whome should write their answers on the back of stamped, addressed elephant and send it to You Know Who, You Know Where in County Limerick, Ireland.

The two year old child who died on a Luftansa flight from Frankfurt to New York yesterday died from natural causes, a post mortem carried out in Cork University Hospital has revealed.

The child became severely dehydrated on board the flight and died before the aircraft had landed at Shannon.

The child and her family were part of a group of 24 Eritrean nationals travelling to the United States as part of a repatriation programme.

An emergency inquest will take place in Ennis tomorrow morning and the family will be allowed to resume their journey to the United States with their child’s remains for burial in America.

A man has been injured in a drive-by shooting on Hyde Avenue in Ballinacurra Weston.

Little is know aobut the circumstances surrounding the gun attack which occurred in the last hour, other than that a man has been taken to the Midwest Regional hospital with injuries.

His condition is not yet known.

UPDATE A large portion of Hyde Road has been sealed off while Gardai await technical examiners to the scene of the gun attack.

At 1545 hrs, a number of shots were fired at a house on the Hyde Avenue and the car being driven headed in the direction of the city centre.

The injured man received gunshot wounds to the leg, and his injuries are not said to be life threatening.

Gardai at Roxboro are investigating and calling for witnesses to the incident.

Below: Area of Ballinacurra Weston and Prospect which are off limits until further notice

Perhaps if enough people wrote accurate stuff about Limerick in blogs, it might appear in the independent in three or four years time, like all that ValueIreland stuff did.

Superintendent Willie Keane has called last Sunday’s Independent front page story “idle speculation.” after it emerged that there was no arrest and no gun seized at the entrance of the cemetery where James Cronin was being laid to rest.

The national newspaper had claimed that Gardai had thwarted an attempt by a criminal gang to carry out an attack on mourners at the funeral.

However Superintendent Keane has told the Limerick Leader that no such Garda operation took place.

More from the Leader.

Will the Crime Correspondent of the Independent respond? We will just have to wait and see.