The Limerick Blogger: latest Limerick news and Limerick events

 Cityjet/Air France has announced it is to increase its daily services from Shannon to Paris. It is doubling its capacity with the introduction of a 95-seat aircraft, which will be based at Shannon.

Cityjet/Air France  is also bringing forward its morning departure times from 9am to 6.30am to increase business connectivity at Charles de Gaulle airport.

The service from Shannon to Paris began last February in the aftermath of the withdrawal of the Aer Lingus service to Heathrow – a service that is now being resumed in April.

Welcoming the announcement, Shannon Airport Director Martin Moroney said doubling the capacity and the early morning departure is a huge boost not just to Shannon but to the entire west of Ireland and he called on the business market to support it.

A new radio station aimed at the over 40s will commence broadcasting officially this week in Limerick Galway, Clare, Cork and Dublin.

4FM will feature mostly oldies music, from jazz, big band, and music of the 60s and 70s.

Presenters will include former 2FM disc jockey, Gareth O’Callighan.

The station will broadcast on 104.2 in Limerick City and on 104.6 in Clare.  Test transmissions are currently underway on the Clare frequency.

4FM website.

h/t Shane.  From the website of the belfast Telegraph.  Click the image for a larger view.

Tommy Collison has just been announced the winner of the best newcomer at the Irish Blog Awards in Cork for his blog Trust Tommy

It looks as though Tommy is the first person from Limerick to actually win an award tonight.

The awards are being held at the Cork International Airport Hotel.

Black Daisy, along with Sinead Falvey will represent Ireland in Moscow this coming May at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Late Late Show performance below

The voting this year was a combination of jury and televoting, which is how the Eurovision voting will be done this year. Hopfully this will remove the neighbourly voting which has dogged the Eurovision for years.

Voting scoreboard

Staff at Element Six diamond processing facility in Shannon staged a sit-in protest yesterday over what they fealt was the unfair implementation of reduced working hours.

The company had planned to implement a week-on week-off roster system for 200 of it’s workers in response to the economic downturn.  The new hours were due to come into effect next week.

However staff staged the protest as they believed that the measure was being introduced in an unfair manner, and that management grades were not subject to the same short time.

The protest ended after the company agreed to defer the introduction of the short time hours, and enter discussions with workers representatives.

The Campaign for a Real Public Health Service (CRPHS) is a nationwide lobby group calling for a halt to cuts in the health service.

Their Limerick branch are actively campaigning for the retention of St. John’s Accident and Emergency, as well as improvements to the A and E services in Dooradoyle.

The group now has it’s own blog, for those who wish to keep up to date with their activities.

Campaign for a Real Public Health Service (Limerick) has been added to the list of local blogs.  If you have a blog from or about Limerick City or County, send us the link, editors@limerickblogger.org

it looks like the Republic of Ireland soccer team will be winging their way down to Thomond Park for two friendlies over the next twelve months.  No opponents named yet but it is believed one of the dates will the the 12th of August with the other next Spring.  John Delaney boss of the FAI said ’The Aviva Stadium is where we’ll play all our internationals going forward but there’s a window of opportunity now to play some games in Thomond Park,’  ’It’s a wonderful facility and will also facilitate some of our supporters in the Munster and Connacht areas.’ Rumours still circulate that there will be some other soccer friendlies played at Thomond over the summer, more when it is confirmed.  

UPDATE

While that is good news for soccer fans, closer to home the annual saga that is Limerick soccer has kicked off again with the news that Limerick fc manager Mike Kerley, has resigned.  The season kicks off on the 6th of March with the new 37 less Limerick, ie Limerick fc as opposed to Limerick37fc  away to newly relegated UCD.

Rua Tipoki is back in the Munster squad for the Magners league game against Edinburough at the Weekend, reported fit but hasnt made the squad (the game is in Musgrave Park)  Peter Stringer, Keith Earls, Denis Leamy, Alan Quinlan and Mick O’Driscoll have also been released from the Ireland squad and are available for selection.

Over the weekend Limerick footballers got their first win in the league when an injury point score gave Limerick a 14 points to 1-10 victory over Roscommon.  The county hurlers were on the receiving end of an injury point score as Kilenny beat the Shannonsiders on a scoreline of 15 points to 14.

The Gaelic grounds has been confirmed as a venue for a compromise rules game this autumn

Gaa central council has approved the use of Croke Park if Munster win their quarter final in the Heineken cup and have a home draw. IF they win, Munster would face either Leinster or Harlequins.

Andy Lee has his first fight back on American soil after his solitary defeat there on the 16th of March in the “Erin go Brawl ii” in New York. Fellow Limerick man Jamie Power from the St Francis boxing club will also be  on the bill at Madisson Square gardens.

Poor old Willie O Dea came under fire this week, even from members of his own party, after he suggested that a boundary extension was necessary for Limerick City.

A sizable number of county councillors seem to be in denial in relation to the transfer of all parts of County Limerick north of the Shannon to Limerick City Council.  They believed that this was the boundary extension for Limerick and that was that, even though it had repeatedly been stated that this was a partial extension to facilitate the recommendations in the Fitzgerald Report, and that a proper boundary extention would be considered in the future.

Leo Walche of Fine Gael is one of them.  “I thought it would be the bare city and that it would be the end of it when they took away the Cahirdavin and Coonagh areas from us last year.” he is quoted in the Leader as saying.  I hope I wasn’t the only one to notice the absence of Moyross in that statement.

One councillor last year even suggested that the partial extension should satisfy the people of Limerick city until 2058.

Tomas Hannon made a startling revalation in his comments to the paper.  Limerick County Council collects €11 million in rates from the Raheen Industrial Estate!.  €11 million and not one local authority house has been built by Limerick County Council within the city environs in the last 20 years!

Most Dail TD’s are worried about the loss of rates to Limerick County Council, but comments by Niall Collins of Fianna Fail take the cake.  “”People in the county don’t want the responsibility of social housing in their community resting with the city council.”   You are more likely to find Elvis Presley in Raheen before you will find a council house.  As I have said before, the County Council hasn’t built any houses for Limerick City Council to take control of.   To the best of my knowledge, the nearest council house built by Limerick County Council to the city is in Patrickswell.

No doubt the song and dance will resume in March when this much anticipated white paper on local government reform comes out.

When I read the headline in the Leader this evening that Black Daisy were running for Eurosong this year I thought, “great, something nice loud and sexy from Ireland,” until I got further into the article and found that the powers that be have sidelined the band’s lead singer and put someone else up front in the act. As much as I wish Lesley-Anne and the girls the best of luck, this doesn’t work for me.

Anyhow, the sone Et Cetera, performed by Sinead Mulvey and Black Daisy seems to be getting the most positive reaction of the six finalists from the hardcore Eurovision fans. Whether this translates into votes tonight remains to be seen.

The winning song will be picked on tonight’s Late Late Show.

All six finalists are availible on Youtube. ESC Today has put them all on one page.