Unorganised and Gloomy Paddys day

limerick_man

First off on Paddys Day as the bus stops were all full of people waiting for buses, the parade began! As tourists in there hundreds and locals in there thousands, waited to get into the city the Rugby Relay was in full swing!

This is the busiest day of March, the streets are prettty much blocked and no buses??? 30,000 cars trying to get around the city, i would have thought like any sane person the buses would run!!! How foolish i was!

When tourist (and locals) come to ireland for paddys day it should be special, FFS, they missed half (or all) the parade... thats a joke. I mean these people had a choice of going to limerick or dublin and they graced limerick ... to me i am proud of that, alot of people just turned away and walked home or some desperate tourist legged it into the city when they realised, no buses where running!

It wasnt as if getting a bus from Raheen into the city was imossible, hell thousands of cars were doing it because the buses werent, why screw with people???? I would have thought that they would double up the service rather then stop it!

Then after the parade i asked a guard 'will the buses operate again' and he assured me 'when the streets opened the drivers are waiting to drive around and park up the buses at stops' (and he was right too there were buses on every corner of the city), but he said the roads probably wouldnt open until 2!!! so that was grand just before two i see loads of buses moving into stops along williams street so i walk down to Brown Thomas (where the raheen buses leave) and O' Connell St. is blocked.

I asked the guard again where the bus is and he tells me the 308 is up there on williams street (it goes to Raheen - UL and stops in town) so i walk up and say to the driver 'this is going onto Raheen right'? "NO" he responds, not until that road opens ... until then it will circle UL - City Centre! Now theres a good idea??????

So i walk back down to the guard and say 'ok when will O Connell street open', and he says to me 'when they are ready'!!!!!!

Then i say 'ok when are the buses seduled to begin the route and he tells me 'they are waiting until we clear the route' ... and he doesnt know when that will be!!

During my wait I saw two thugs steal things from Merchants on the entrence to Crusis Street (by MacDonalds), While about 10 - 15 guards are standing by the railings which were blocking each section of O Connell Street, i guess to protect the railings or something??????????

The only civic operate that could be visibly doing something where the street cleaners and bhoy did they have one hell of a job to do!!!!

The guards were no where to be seen, all the shops were closed and apart from the carnvial (which most people and no clue what was actually going on) Limerick was dead!

It was just thugs walking around, and there was crap all over the ground and everything seemed so depressing, its a shame that with such a great parade, people couldnt get there (or away from there) and afterwards for the next hour and a half the entire place is dead!!! I just thought the day and poorly exicuted and the most preperation probably went into planes flying across the city then the actually guests to the city!!!

The fact that over 50 arrests were made that night shows that the guards didnt act soon enough ... things got out of control and its a god damn shame. No media coverage has said how poor the aftermath of the parade was, except gunfire was reported in Moyross and Adare!!! Not the image of Ireland we should be portraying abroad or to our kids!!!

billy the squid

I wouldnt get too worked up about it **** happened all over the country this year, just like it happens nearly every year of late.

as for asking the guard on the street when a street is going to be opened, he wouldnt know, he is only following orders from his superiors, you should have rang henry street to find out when the streets were being re-opened. and rang bus eireann to find out when busses were being restarted.

7 out of the 70 arrests in the city were at the one incident, a pub brawl on catherine street and as for shots being fired, i think it is just coincidence that it happened on st patrick's night, this sort of thing can happen on any night.

limerick_man

But its really gotten out of control in Limerick (just picking Limerick because i know the full story and this is the limerick bored) . I was just walking up and down waiting for shops to open ... i must admit i was surprised with the lack of activity in the city ... in fact the only place i saw actiity was down by that pub beside the castle .... I saw the Limerick Lions basketball squad there ...

billy the squid

was in nevada smiths on thursday afternoon and people seemed happy enough. granted I did not stay in town after 6:30 pm

limerick_man

Its just that they're was a bit of a complete (is that an oximoran, anyway) anti-climax when the parade finished!!!

And the fact that standing outside HMV for about 5 minutes and seeing two robberies wasnt exactly showing that peace was restored!!!

After this i wouldnt be too shocked if one of these years there was looting or something!!

billy the squid

there always has and always will be scumbags loitering outside HMV I see them every time I pass the shop no matter what day it is.

the guards should have done something about it, or something should have been done to discurage this type of people hanging around there all along.

limerick_man

But the guards were on the road in groups standing behind railings!!!