The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

It would seem that the honeymoon period between the new Chair of Limerick County Council and members of the City Council has come to an end.

John Gallaghue, who becaim Chair back in June, has come out attacking the city council for not providing facilities such as parks in housing estates.

“If we had forward thinking planners and people with vision, you would have parks like these at any place which has a few hundred houses. They need public facilities.” Cllr Gallighue claimed in yesterday’s Limerick Chronicle.   How quickly he forgets the way the local council he is a member of, neglected Moyross when it was in their territory.

Couple that with the fact that Limerick County Council have not built a single social house in any of Limerick City’s environs.  What is the point of a park or a playground if its only use is somewhere to take the kids when the Bed and Breakfast you are staying in chucks you out for the day.

Related Limerick Leader story

The Limerick Post newspaper is starting to embrace the social media, and have dipped their toe into blogging.

Sports writers, Donn O’Sullivan and Andrew Carey are writing the Limerick Post Sports Blog, and after having a look, it is pretty impressive.

The Limerick Post Sports Blog will be added to our list of Limerick Blogs.  If you have a Limerick related blog, drop us an email to editors@limerickblogger.org and tell us about it.

We launched the forums as an experiment, and now, two weeks later, it looks like it’s going pretty well—317 posts (which works out at almost 23 per day) and 81 users. Most importantly, the forum is creating interesting discussions that wouldn’t otherwise have happened (for example, concerning Limerick’s Senior Hurling manager). I think it’s safe to say the forums will now be a permanent fixture on The Limerick Blogger.

We’re always wondering about ways we could approve them, and things we could add. So if anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please let us know in the comments.

From Met Eireann

Issued at 16 August 2008 – 09:35
Weather Advisory
Valid from 0935 Saturday 16/8/08 to 2100 Monday 18/8/08.
There will be further heavy rain over the weekend and during Monday with totals of 40 to 70mm possible.
Thunderstorm activity will occur also.

 

Meanwhile, debris caused by a landslide has caused a rail locomotive to be derailed outside of Portarlington station. This will cause significant travel delays to trains from Galway, Limerick, Kerry and Cork.

Phil Ahern’s stunning Limerick photography has caused quite a stir on the forum, and after a quick chat we’re now very happy to announce that his work will be integrated into the site, as you can see in the new banner image above.

Phil has taken many great shots of Limerick, and rather than have us manually change the image, we decided that the header image should reflect Limerick as it currently is—i.e. that the header image should correspond to the time of day in Limerick. So you’ll see pictures of Limerick taken during the evening in the evening, afternoon pictures in the afternoon, etc.

Phil has a site over at munsterphotography.com—his work is great, and if anything takes your fancy, the pictures can be purchased. Check it out!

We’re also always happy to feature new photography on the site, and now that this rotation is in place, we’d be happy to add pictures to the queue. As ever, just drop us a line.

Lots of our readers subscribe to The Limerick Blogger via RSS, but not everyone uses an RSS reader. We’d like to provide another means of keeping in touch with the site for these people, and with that in mind we’re pleased to launch The Limerick Blogger Newsletter today. Simply send an email to @limerickblogger.org, and we’ll send you an email every week with the full text of the week’s stories, links to their comments, and also a link to the most active forum topics.

If you subscribe, you’ll never receive an email with anything other than a newsletter. We hate spam too. Each email will also come with a one-click unsubscribe option.

As always, we’re interested to hear any feedback.

Cheers,

The Editors

Sad news that three people have lost their lives on Limerick roads in the last 36 hours.  An 18 year old girl who was due to collect her leaving cert results that day lost her life in a single car accident near Bruff in the early hours of Wednesday morning while yesterday a collision between a truck and a car near Ballylanders resulted in a 60 year old man and a 59  year old woman both losing their lives.

Sport

In GAA circles, the reign of Richie bennis as Senior hurling manager has come to an end as the county board have decided to seek nominations for the position. It is believed that Richie was keen to stay on but the county board have decided otherwise.

Saturday the 4th of October, 7pm….. The first date for Munster rugby at the new Thomond Park, where Glasgow Warriors will be the opposition in the first home game of the Magners league.. Anthony Foley who retired at the end of the season has been appointed as technical advisor to the senior squad and will be assistant coach to the Munster under 20 squad and forward coach of the Munster A side. Jason Hollan will be backs coach to the senior squad while Mossy Lawlor will take over as video analyst.

Entertainment

Limerick native Terry Wogan has told the radio times he is unlikely to present another Eurovison song contest for the BBC. Wogan who has presented the show since 1980 has said -” I was considering giving up before this years contest and now i have to say i’m very doubtful about ever wanting to do Eurovision again. I’ve had so much fun but its time for someone else to take over.”

News

A memorial service for the late Ger McDonnell who lost his life on the descent from K2 will be held at Kilcornan community centre on Sunday the 17th at 1.30pm. A memorial Mass for people, who’s lives were touched by Ger are more than welcome. A Mass will take place along with a musical celebration following the Mass. All are invited to attend. Issued on behalf of the McDonnell family.

The boss of Dell’s Limerick operation in Raheen Nick Hartery has announced that he is to step down from his post in October after eight years at the helm.

Nothing to do with Limerick, but from a sporting point of view I would just like to congratulate Padraig Harrington on his major win at the USPGA in Oakland Hills. Harrington has now cemented his status as one, if not the top sportsmen in Irish History with his third major victory in a year. He is the first European in 70 years to win the USPGA and the first European in 18 years to win two majors in the same year.

“I felt the pressure. It was probably the most nervous I’ve been for many a tournament,” Harrington told Reuters. “I’ve always said that after the four Majors this is the next event I’ve wanted to win. The crowd was fantastic. Even when I saved for bogey they cheered and the applause definitely gave me a boost.” The words of the Dubliner when he became the first irishman in 25 years to win the Irish Open which was held at Adare Manor in 2007.. He hasn’t done too badly since then winning 3 of the next six majors! And we can say that his good run started after his victory in Adare in 2007!

August is in full flow, and news is thin enough on the ground so here are some shorts to keep things ticking over

Sports
RTE have confirmed that they will be broadcasting the Munster v All Blacks game at the newly refurbished Thomond Park live in November. As the game is a friendly it is not tied in with the Heineken or Magners league tv contracts so for those of you who wont get tickets, you can always say i saw it on d’telly. Meanwhile members of the Rugby team will be present at Easons on Wednesday for the launch of a new book – ” Munster, Champions of Europe”, a 20 euro affair with over 200 photographs from the successful European campaign along with detailed descriptions of all the Heineken cup games.
Limerick 37 were on the receiving end of a 3-1 defeat away to Waterford last night, the recent good run now turning into a depressing run of three heavy defeats..

Doom and gloom recession type stuff and planning related matters

Leaving aside the rumours about developments around the Parkway, it seems that Henry Street and there about is where all the news is at the minute. Munchy Munch, a chinese take away on Glentworth Street overhead the Glen Tavern has closed, the Centra on lower Henry Street has closed and Thomond Office interiors on Henry Street opposite the police station is to be knocked with a five story building being built to replace it. Meanwhile on Thomas Street the seven story building known as the “Thomas Street centre” is nearing completion with a number of shop units coming on stream. No word yet on any tenants but we will let you know.

Aer Lingus screw Shannon (again)

We also previously reported how Aer Lingus would be reducing flights on their Transatlantic routes from Shannon as they were getting some of their planes refurbished early next year. At the time Aer Lingus announced there would be a 15 % reduction in long haul flights from January to March 2009 but in reality from Shannon the number is closer to 33%. It has been announced that the daily flight to New York is being reduced to four per week and the Chicago service is being reduced to three per week. Hopefully this doesn’t become a year around situation.

Swing your baton

If the olympics have got your interest in sports going again then you could always head out to UL where the 29th World Baton Twirling championships are going on. Events wind up tomorrow!