Armed Gardai called to patrol parts of Limerick

Overheal

ARMED gardai from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) have been ordered to return to patrol the gangland estates of Limerick this weekend after Justice Minister Brian Lenihan compared the situation to a tinderbox which could explode at any minute.
Mr Lenihan and Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy yesterday met with senior officers in Limerick to receive an update on the city's feuding criminal gangs and visited the estates of Moyross and Southill.
The feud is again close to boiling point following a machine gun attack on six homes earlier this week and the scene of heavily armed officers monitoring and patrolling the city's flashpoints in 4x4 jeeps will become a familiar sight once more in the city.
Mr Murphy said the ERU will be in Limerick in the next few days "to take up duty for a period of time and to augment armed patrols".
"You can be sure you will see the ERU on the streets of Limerick very shortly to deal with the problems that we have here," said the garda chief, who added that policing in the area is a two-pronged approach.
Unacceptable
"The firearms incidents that are happening are unacceptable and we will do everything in our power to bring the people who are responsible to justice," said Commissioner Murphy.
"Limerick is a fine place to live and a peaceful place for the most part, but there are two or three areas where I am putting community police and armed forceful type of policing that I consider necessary.
"I want to compliment the gardai in Limerick. It's tough policing in parts of Limerick, but they are doing a fine job as far as I am concerned," said Commissioner Murphy yesterday.
The ERU will stay in the city for as long as senior gardai deem necessary.
Mr Lenihan said the position in Limerick is like a tinderbox given the amount of unlawful weaponry in criminal hands.
"It can explode at any minute and we are very conscious of that but I am glad that this increased investment in policemen to date has produced results here in Limerick. But we also realise that there are deeper factors and deeper causes and we have to be tough on crime and the causes of crime here," the minister said.
"It was extremely fortunate that when that number of houses were sprayed with machine gun bullets that nobody was injured or killed as a result," Mr Lenihan admitted.
He said that in the last year, 10pc of the firearms seizures that have taken place in the State have occurred in Limerick city and, clearly, he said gardai "are sparing no effort in locating firearms in this area and (removing) them from use".
In relation to the seven violent deaths in Limerick last year, Mr Lenihan said the gardai had either proffered charges or had firm leads in all cases.
"We accept and recognise the need for a heavy policing presence to ensure deterrents of behaviour and that is the big challenge facing the gardai here, not just detecting crime but preventing it from happening."
In the past year, the number of gardai in Limerick has increased substantially by 70 officers to a total of 475.
"There has been a much higher garda presence on the ground and it has had a noticeable effect in terms of crime detention, prevention and punishment in the Limerick area," Mr Lenihan said.
Mr Lenihan also rejected calls for the introduction of internment for gang members as suggested by chairman of Limerick's Joint Policing Committee, Kevin Kiely.
"That is not a realistic option constitutionally and legally it is not possible."

♪ ( I love it when a plan comes together ) ♪

Jesus Wept

I won't hear a bad word said about Limerick, tis great, and all that dwell in it.

I can't find 'Limerick you are a lady', so instead, here is 'Where's me jumper?'

HAPPYGIRL

The-Rigger wrote: »

I won't hear a bad word said about Limerick, tis great, and all that dwell in it.

I can't find 'Limerick you are a lady', so instead, here is 'Where's me jumper?'

Great i love it when the ERU comes to town.


*Waits for the usual Limerick bashing to start. :rolleyes:

Funkstard

Heard about this during the week. My course is set to move into Kings Island (where the estate the incident happened is) for 4th and 5th year. Should be fun.

MrJoeSoap

Can we not set it adrift?

ninty9er

And they'll be made more than welcome! Gangland crime has no place in our city!

utick

instead of trying to shed its stab image limerick should just embrace it, at this stage its so embedded its like folklore

6th

That image makes me think of the song "Here comes the girls" thats used in some advert.

el diablo

utick wrote: »

instead of trying to shed its stab image limerick should just embrace it, at this stage its so embedded its like folklore

yep, that's true. it's sounds like an absolute hellhole. definitely the most crime-ridden part of Ireland. I don 't plan to visit any time soon...:o

cornbb

el diablo wrote: »

definitely the most crime-ridden part of Ireland.

el diablo wrote:

Location: dublin

Hmmmmm.

Limerick's not that bad, I lived there for a while. There's a core of a few uber-scummy families giving the whole place a bad name. Of course there are also hordes of run-of-the-mill scumbags walking the streets, but nothing you wouldn't find in any other Irish town (except for sweet Galway. The hippies are annoying but they are an effective scum repellant).

Mr. CooL ICE

Meh. I've been living here for 6 years and all but one of they 3-4 incidents of violence/crime I have ever witnessed have been by drunks or students. The other was some scumbags throwing rocks at 2 scumbags driving a car.

I've witnessed more crime in Cork, Dublin and my home town than here. Can't speak for the dangerous estates though.

el diablo

cornbb wrote: »

Hmmmmm.

Limerick's not that bad, I lived there for a while. There's a core of a few uber-scummy families giving the whole place a bad name. Of course there are also hordes of run-of-the-mill scumbags walking the streets, but nothing you wouldn't find in any other Irish town (except for sweet Galway. The hippies are annoying but they are an effective scum repellant).

Perhaps you're forgetting that Dublin has at least 10 times the population of Limerick. per capita Limerick has a far worse crime problem than Dublin.

Mr. CooL ICE

el diablo wrote: »

Perhaps you're forgetting that Dublin has at least 10 times the population of Limerick. per capita Limerick has a far worse crime problem than Dublin.

Hmm, interesting. Source?

el diablo

LordChessington wrote: »

Hmm, interesting. Source?

common knowledge.

cornbb

el diablo wrote: »

Perhaps you're forgetting that Dublin has at least 10 times the population of Limerick. per capita Limerick has a far worse crime problem than Dublin.

[citation needed]

Here are the figures for 2005 (the last year for which regional breakdowns are available): http://www.garda.ie/statistics/report2005.html

Check out page 27 of the pdf ("Analysis of headline Offenses"). Look at the per 1000 columns.

Dublin met. region: 39.13 per 1000
Limerick: 31.85 per 1000

Thank you and good night.

Tha Gopher

el diablo wrote: »

common knowledge.

They will still ask for a source.

Once you give them one, they wont bother replying, so I wouldnt bother providing one tbh.


My area of Dublin has a bit of a rep, and the same population as Limerick roughly.

From memory last year there were 4 murders. I dont really care if Dublin has more burglaries, Limerick is the place were it is not uncommon to catch people under 16 with guns and entire streets get machine gunned.
Cornb- is that Limerick city or does it count the relatively quiet countryside?

Mr. CooL ICE

el diablo wrote: »

common knowledge.

:rolleyes: Please explain... What do you mean 'more' crime? More small crimes, e.g. theft, burglary, etc, or more serious crime, e.g. murder, drug dealing?

cornbb

Tha Gopher wrote: »

They will still ask for a source.

I'd love to see that source. Of course, verifiable facts will never be a worthy replacement for paranoia and misinformation (a.k.a. "common knowledge").

Bard

The-Rigger wrote: »

I can't find 'Limerick you are a lady', so instead, here is 'Where's me jumper?'

What's the relevance? The band performing it, "The Sultans of Ping FC" are from Cork.

cornbb

cornbb wrote: »

[citation needed]

Here are the figures for 2005 (the last year for which regional breakdowns are available): http://www.garda.ie/statistics/report2005.html

Check out page 27 of the pdf ("Analysis of headline Offenses"). Look at the per 1000 columns.

Dublin met. region: 39.13 per 1000
Limerick: 31.85 per 1000

Thank you and good night.

Those figures cover the whole regions.

The thing about statistics is that they can over simplify the information, for example one family could in theory account for half of the crime in some areas. Other parts of the town could be "crime free".

To find the most grime (edit freudian slip) riddled areas you need to drill down further.

cornbb

Deleted User wrote: »

Those figures cover the whole regions.

The thing about statistics is that they can over simplify the information, for example one family could in theory account for half of the crime in some areas. Other parts of the town could be "crime free".

To find the most grime (edit freudian slip) riddled areas you need to drill down further.

Yes, this is true. In Limerick its pretty clear that the infamous estates you hear about in the news are the source of the worst of the trouble (and they really are scary places), whereas other parts of city and county would have very little "headline" crime. But the figures do debunk the myth that "Limerick has a far worse crime problem than Dublin, everyone knows that".