Both the Gardai and the Prison service are carrying out investigations after a man was found hanging in his cell.
The discovery was made at around 2000 hrs and foul play is not being suspected. According to the Irish Independent, the man was imprisoned for drugs offences.
He has not yet been named.
You would be forgiven for thinking that your European parlimentarians never come around. It is, after all, a long hike from Cork to Limerick. Well, you can expect to see them in the coming weeks, so I’ve decided to give a brief summary of who they are, and what they stand for.
Dr. Alexander Stafford
Independent
The only Limerick person to date to declare themselves for the European election. Dr. Alexander Stafford is a consultant Radiologist, who has worked in the public and private health system in the midwest for the past three decades. He is 57 years old, and a father of four children. It took some googleing to find out what he actually stands for, as his full page adverts in the Leader and Post tell you absoloutely nothing about him. When a candidate is prepared to waste their own money on uninformative ads like that, one can only imagine what they will be like with someone else’s, namely the taxpayers.
So what does he hope to achieve? From the Limerick Leader of 17th April; “It is my firm belief that the best future system for medical care would be to have all citizens fully insured with equal access to healthcare as is the system in most countries in mainland Europe. The present two-tiered system is unfair,” And a consultant with 30 years experience at a time when the HSE are having a recruitment freeze is really going to change that.
Ned O’Keeffe
Fianna Fail
O’Keeffe was born in Mitchelstown in Cork, and since 1982 has risen through the ranks within Fianna Fail since he was nominated by Charles Haughey to the Seannad in 1982. This rising star’s future was thrown into doubt when he resigned the Fianna Fail whip in November 2007 during a vote of no confidence in the Minister for Health, Mary Harney. Four months later, his Fianna Fail friends let him back in from the cold. Now he is running for Europe. So, who will he represent in the European Parliment? Here is what he said to the Corkman newspaper on April 9th. “Ireland needs to be at the heart of Europe if we are to continue to thrive as a country, particularly in the areas of business and farming. There is a feeling that both sectors have been badly represented at European level and therefore a strong hand is needed to ensure Ireland is not left by the wayside,”
You give a couple of billion to the banks and there’s uproar, but we have been bailing the farmers out for decades and no one seems to care.
Dan Boyle
Green Party
Chairman of the Green Party and senator, Boyle is another Corkman running for Europe. Armed with his electric bus, he hopes to take the constituency by storm.
I particularly like this bit from his MiCandidate profile; “Over the next 12 months, the Green Party will be unveiling a series of proposals aimed at improving our education system. Week by week, we will be looking at all levels of education, but with a particular focus on getting the early years right.” Why tell us week by week? Why not tell us where you stand on everything at one time rather than drip feed us.
Sean Kelly
Fine Gael
Fine Gael’s Sean Kelly has a cabinet full of “…of the year” awards, from the ESB Rehab person of the year award in 2005, to Kerry Person of the year 2008, and one or two more in between. There are no electric buses in his campaign, rather big gas guzzling 4X4s which he proudly displayed at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis this year. Mr. Kelly appears to be a bit of a Celebrity, being former president of the GAA.
Alan Kelly
Labour
A Tipperary Man, who also has a cabinet full of medals and awards to his name. He is currently a member of Seannad Eireann, and this will be his first time campaigning in a European Election. So what is he about? From his latest press release; “I hope to lead a new model of implementation of European decisions, where MEPs are compelled to submit reports on their work to the Seanad and local authorities. We need a new system that links national and local democracy with European institutions.” Ah yes, in these times of cutting our cloth and tightening our belts, what we need right now is one group of politicians with no real power sending mountains of paper work to two groups of politicians who have no real power either.
Colm Bourke
Fine Gael
Yet another Corkman throwing his hat in the ring is current sitting MEP Colm Bourke. A former farmer from a place called Dripsey, he now lives in the second biggest smoke and is a solicitor by profession. Like most of the other Cork boys, they haven’t started canvassing in these parts, so can’t really tell you much about him. He says on his website that if I give him my number one vote, he will work tirelessly on my behalf. Seeing as the European Parliment doesn’t have all that much power, he is wasting his energy
Brian Crowley
Fianna Fail
What can be said, another Cork candidate, and a Fianna Failler as well!. Crowley has been a member of the European Parliment since 1994 Other than that, there is little of interest to me about him.
Kathy Synnott
Independent
Kathy Synnott came to prominence during a long running dispute with the Irish state over the provision of education to her disabled son. Following the resoloution of the case, she went on to run for the European Parliment. She would be a little to the right of centre, opposing abortion and embryonic stem cell research. She opposed the Lisbon Treaty Synnott is originally from Chicago Illinois, but is currently living in Cork
Toireasa Ferris
Sinn Fein
Funny she has been omitted from the list of Ireland South candidates on MiCandidate.eu. Anyway, she comes from County Kerry. She is a current member of Kerry County Council and at the age of 26, became the first female Mayor of the county. This will be her first time running in Europe.
Ireland South Election candidate for Sinn Féin, Toireasa Ferris was in Limerick yesterday evening to attend a public meeting on her party’s “Getting Ireland Back to Work” document. I will be uploading the video for this tomorrow.
I did however, get a chance to speak to some of the party’s local election candidates. Below, you can find interviews with Maurice Quinlivan, Limerick City North, Tom Collopy, Limerick City East, and Richard Young, Kilmallock County Council electoral area.
Not knowing one end of a basketball from the other, I will let John Buckley give the detail:
Having moved to Ireland just under a year ago to play basketball professionally for the ‘Jungle Kings’, American native Coffey has announced that he is to leave the Limerick Lions. Sean was one of the starting five throughout the season, he led the team in terms of points scored (averaging 15.5 points per game) and was the top 3-point scorer in the league hitting an impressive 37 three pointers (netting 111 points). “We would like to thank Sean for the tremendous effort he put into his time here, he is a very talented and dedicated player, we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours”, commented Limerick Lions Public Relations Officer, John Buckley.
Sean Coffey has had some interest from a number of European clubs and is looking into taking up an offer somewhere on the continent. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Limerick Lions. This organization has given me my start in professional basketball. I hope to continue my career in Europe. Due to this opportunity that was given to me, I was able to achieve individual feats that I am very proud of; leading the Superleague in 3 point field goals made and leading the Lions in scoring”. American’s playing one season in Ireland before moving further east or returning west is not uncommon – most Americans only come and play in the Superleague for one season, hoping to experience the Emerald Isle, while getting their footsteps into professional basketball.
“I give John King, Harry Coyne and my teammates much thanks for making my time here so special. It will be a time in my life I will never forget. I wish the club the best of luck in the future”, he continued, claiming that he will continue to follow the successes of the Limerick Lions Superleague team from wherever he may be in the world. Sean also mentioned that he has fallen in love with his adopted city and considered Limerick a home while he was here, adding that he hopes “to have Limerick City as a place to visit well after my career is over”. The Limerick Lions would like to wish Sean all the best and the luck of the Irish as he hopes to further his basketball career.
Over the past number of weeks, the children of Limerick were invoted to take photographs of the things they love about Limerick. It didn’t matter what the picture was of, whether it was of their family, their pet, or a shot of the city, and a big fancy camera wasn’t required either. They were able to use the trusty camera phone to take their photo if they wished.
The end result is the “Limerick I Love” exhibition at the Bedford Row centre.
Launch video:
The exhibition consists of 400 photographs from schoolchildren from the city.
The photographs will be enlarged, framed and put on display on Thursday, and Friday from 1900 hrs to 2100 hrs.
The exhibition is also open to the public from 1000 hrs to 1500 hrs on Saturday.
Following the exhibition, a select number of the photos will brighten up a number of empty retail units on Thomas Street and on Bedford Row.
The Limerick Leader, the Co-Ordination Office, Shannon Development and Carambola Kids and Relive the Memory are supporting the exhibition
Below you will find interviews with Eoghan Prendergast of Shannon Development, and Laura Ryan of the Limerick Co-Ordination Office
Peter Power has retained his position of junior minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs, following the shake up of the Junior Ministers by Taoiseach, Brian Cowen.
The news that he was being kept on, and would remain responsible for Irish Aid, was given during a five minute meeting with Cowen.
North Tipperary’s Maire Hoctor was not so lucky. She was one of seven Junior Ministers booted out of office along with Noel Ahern, John McGuinness, Micheal Kitt, Sean Power, Mary Wallace and Jimmy Devins.
There are two new Junior ministers, Aine Brady from Kildare, and Dara Calleary of Mayo
Details of the 2009 Riverfest have been announced.
Organisers have taken advantage of the timing of the Heineken Cup semifinal by incorporating the match into the festivities.
There will be a 14 metre screen showing the match on Georges Quay. The game will be preceeded and followed by live music.
A special mass is also being held at the Augistinian church on O’Connell Street
The fireworks display is back. We are promised that the display, which was sorely missed last year, will be making a comeback.
The BBQ cook-off will be gone, but there will be plenty of food on offer, and members of the public might even get a chance to sample it this time.
Food offerings include the Continental market, an Ice Cream party being held in Arthurs Quay Park, as well as a Pig-on-a-spit outside the Locke Bar.
Highlights from the blurb
Lyric FM, who are celebrating ten years, are holding a number of concerts at the University Concert Hall, and the GAA, who celebrate 125 years, will be holding a puck fada contest.
More on the festival can be found at festivalslimerick.com
The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales has reneged on his initial offer to allow an international panel of investigators to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Ballinderry man, Michael Dwyer, and two other men in what is claimed to have been a foiled assassination attempt.
Claiming that countries like Ireland, Croatia, Hungary, and Romania, the countries all the dead men came from, had no authority to interfiere with Bolivian investigations, he said that international calls to the defence of these men were “ill-placed” as they “tried to kill the President.”
RTE report can be found here, You will also find a video interview with Michael Dwyer’s parents.
Arrangements are currently underway for the repatriation of Mr. Dwyer’s remains from Bolivia to Ireland, and are due to be returned by the end of the week.
Some more information about Michael Dwyer’s activities prior to his death have emerged in the last day.
After leaving GMIT, he worked full time in security. He was an employee of Integrated Risk Management Services, a Kildare based security company, during the summer of last year, and was assigned at the controversial Shell pipeline. He then went to work for a company called Pretorian, based in Galway. Pretorian went under after it was stripped of it’s licence for tax irregularities.
The Irish Times reports that Dwyer told his family that he was going to Bolivia to do a three month security course. However, he paid for his own flights. He had travelled with a group of 15 other people to Bolivia. His family are now trying to get in contact with members of this group, but it is understood that he broke away from them to find employment himself.
He was then reported to be in the company of a group of men, including a Mr. Eduardo Rosza Flores, in January when their group spent nearly three months living in hotels. They spent 81 days in one hotel.
Journalist, Tom Hennegan of the Irish Times gave an interview with the Last Word show on Today FM, and gave a brief summary of the events of last Thursday based on his own research after arriving in Santa Cruz.
At 0400 hrs elite forces arrived at the hotel, secured the lobby and demanded to know the whereabouts of the men. They did not ask for them by name, but by nationality. They were directed to the fourth floor of the hotel. The men they were looking for were the only ones on that floor.
The police unit secured the hotel’s exits and cut the phones before making their way to the fourth floor.
A night manager worker at the hotel described to the Times reporter how an explosion could be heard which “shook the hotel” before ten to fifteen minutes of rapid gunfire.
The hotel manager, who along with his lawyer are the only civillians allowed onto the fourth floor of the hotel since the raid, described the scene afterwards. He is reported to have seen guns only in Flores’ room.
He also stated that there were only bullet holes within the room and there were no holes near to where police entered.
Today FM broadcast : Shuttle forward roughly one hour
The Limerick Co-Ordination office is seeking this year’s crop of street ambassadors.
The project, which is in it’s fourth year, has helped over 50,000 tourists to Limerick. The city was the first to have street ambassidors in the Republic.
The position is part time, working 15 hours a week over 10 weeks, and the successful applicants will be provided with training and a uniform.
Anyone interested should send their Curriculum Vitae along with a one hundred word letter stating why they would like to be a Street ambassador to; Orla O’Connor, Limerick Co-Ordination Office, 50 O’Connell Street.
The closing date for applications is May 15th
A taxi driver is recovering in hospital after being stabbed and robbed in County Limerick.
At 0300 hrs this morning, a man and a woman got into the taxi on O’Connell Street in the city and requested to be taken to an address in Croagh.
When the driver left the N21 road for the town, he was stabbed a number of times and his car was stolen.
Gardai at Askeaton are investigating and are seeking the public’s help in locating the 97-D registered Mercedes car.
You are currently browsing the The Limerick Blogger weblog archives for April, 2009.
