Very like Cork city actually, with its narrow streets. Its is also a far sight cleaner, than Cork city which is famous across the country for its lack of bins and filth covering the streets, I once walked from Patrick Street to Dennihys cross without encountering a single dustbin. That is not even eastern European standard.
Do civilians still have to wear stab and bullet proof vests going to Supermacs on the Ennis Road?
[SIZE=6][FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=4]Household items ‘weapons in bloody street fracas’[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=5][FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]A BABY’S feeding chair, pool cues and a golf club were among the items produced during what a court heard yesterday was a vicious running battle outside a fast food outlet.[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Two “distinct groups” were involved in the fracas in Limerick, which was split up by gardai from outside the town centre who happened to be passing by at the time, the court heard.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]The incident happened outside the Supermacs family restaurant at Ennis Road on May 27 last year.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Pleading not guilty yesterday at Limerick Circuit Court to a charge of violent conduct arising out of the incident were Patrick McCarthy (21), College Avenue, Moyross; Kieran Ryan (20), Pineview Gardens, Moyross; David McCarthy (26), O’Callaghan Avenue, Kileely; Edward McCarthy (23), O’Callaghan Aveune, Kileely; David Sheehan (19), Cliona Park, Moyross; Philip Collopy (23), St Ita’s Street, St Mary’s Park; and Anthony Keane, St Munchin’s Street, St Mary’s Park.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Two of the accused - Philip Collopy and Anthony Keane - are also denying a charge of possession of offensive weapons.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]The jury was informed yesterday that two more men, Declan Sheehy (37), St Brendan’s Street, St Mary’s Park and Ray Collopy (34), St Ita’s Street, St Mary’s Park have both pleaded guilty to violent disorder arising out of the fracas.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Sgt John Bruton, attached to the Garda Sub-Aqua unit, said he was in one of three unmarked garda vehicles on convoy from Fermoy, Co Cork to Lahinch, Co Clare, when they came across the incident. He said that the incident occurred during rush hour, at around 5.30pm.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]As he was passing, he witnessed a “commotion” going on, involving a number of people in the car park, who had sticks and other implements.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Before he got out of the Jeep, he requested that another garda ring 999.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]When he got out, he instructed the group, and one man in particular, Pat McCarthy, to desist.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Garda Bruton was standing in front of Ray Collopy and Declan Sheehy, who had blood visible from his head, and Pat McCarthy was roaring and shouting at them and being aggressive.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]The garda believed that Patrick McCarthy was the leader of one of the groups and was in control.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]He (Garda Bruton) was aware that there were two distinct groups involved in the running battle.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Another car pulled up and the back seat passenger, who was carrying a golf stick, tried to get towards where Garda Bruton was standing.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]He didn’t succeed and was put back into the car.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]The driver of a Volvo car at the scene was a Mr Robert Crawford and Pat McCarthy shouted at him: “I will get you later.”[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Garda Glen Brady, also connected to the Sub-Aqua Unit, said that when he arrived, Declan Sheehy and Ray Collopy were at the rear of a van which was parked close to where the fighting was taking place.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]The two men were the same men he had seen moments earlier “viciously fighting” and Declan Sheehy had a severe gash to his head.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]Garda Brady gathered up a number of items, including two sticks or poles and a wooden stool, in the proximity of where the fight was taking place.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=14px]There was a lot of tension between the two opposing groups and his main concern was to take away the items so that they could not be used any further. The trial continues.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[LEFT]Limericks finest[/LEFT]
[LEFT] [/LEFT]
[SIZE=4][FONT=Arial]Gang Rape by Teenagers in Co Clare[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][FONT=Arial][SIZE=4]Thomas O’Neill, the 16-year-old leader of the Cratloe Woods gang-rape, already had 36 previous previous convictions[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][FONT=Arial]The Sunday Tribune, 3 July 2005 by John Burke
[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][FONT=Arial]LIKE thousands of other teenagers across the country, 17-year-old Thomas O’Neill is facing the long summer wait for his leaving certificate results. But the Limerick youth is unlike other students . . . O’Neill sat his exams in Saint Patrick’s Institution, where he is serving 10 years for leading the horrific gang-rape of a 35-year-old woman in the Co Clare woodlands.
The gang members, the youngest aged just 14 at the time of the rape and assault on the woman and her partner in January 2004, come from a background that is all too familiar to welfare services, probation officers and gardai working at the coalface of anti-social behaviour in urban areas.
Though just 16 at the time of the attack, O’Neill was identified as the leader of the gang . . . commanding a group of five including four teenagers and one 25-year-old, Stephen Barry from Roxboro Road in Limerick. Barry last week received a 21-year sentence from the Central Criminal Court for his role in the attack.
Few eyebrows were raised at the revelation that Barry has 36 previous convictions, having previously served terms in prison from between six and 12 months on charges of larceny, burglary, trespass, violent behaviour and breaching a barring order.
But more amazing is the litany of convictions and crimes of the teenage gang leader Thomas O’Neill, who counted Barry, nine years his senior, as one of his footsoldiers in crime. In just four years O’Neill received convictions on 36 occasions, but spent little time behind bars.
O’Neill first came to the attention of Limerick gardai in 2001, for possessing stolen property. By this stage, gardai argue, O’Neill was already set on a path of destruction and violence. When his first conviction was processed through the courts, the probation services noted poor cooperation from his parents.
O’Neill, from Lenihan Avenue in Limerick, is one of five siblings fathered by three different men. One of the three, his step-father, is serving a prison sentence for drugoffences.
Between the ages of 13 and 15 O’Neill was sent twice to Oberstown House, the northDublin centre for juvenile offenders. He was sent home the first time, in May 2002, due to a shortage of beds. The following time he absconded on several occasions.
At the time of the rape, O’Neill should have been less than halfway through a threeyear term for aggravated burglary imposed in late 2002.
He had been detained at Trinity House in Lusk, which is deemed to be for more serious juvenile offenders than those sent to Oberstown House, but Trinity House found the youth to be dangerously volatile and unmanageable. They applied for an “unruly and depraved” order and O’Neill was transferred to Limerick Prison, which is for adults. He was 15 years old when he was released from Limerick, three months later, on New Year’s Eve 2003.
Indicative of the underfunding by the state of the probation and welfare service, O’Neill’s release was unsupervised and he returned to criminal activity straight away.
Just one instance, which has since come to light, highlights the extent to which O’Neill had become uncontrollably violent long before his drink-fuelled gang came across the woman and her partner at the quiet Cratloe Woods site, raping her and assaulting her partner severely.
Last month, Limerick Circuit Court was told that O’Neill, and then 17-year-old co-accused, Sean Flanagan, also from Lenihan Avenue, caused over 1,000 worth of damage to a neighbour’s house. O’Neill later threatened to kill a garda in July 2003, a few months after his release from Limerick prison.
O’Neill and Flanagan robbed the home of a neighbour, Tony Butterfield. The married father of four and other neighbours were regularly terrorised by the juvenile gang, gardai said. The Butterfield family have since moved out of the area in fear and others have followed suit.
O’Neill could easily have been locked away on a homicide charge two years ago.
When Garda Edmund Ryan called to the scene of a burglary with a colleague, O’Neill swung for his head with a sharpened bill-hook and barely missed.
When Flanagan came running from the house, O’Neill told Ryan “I will kill you if you touch him”. The court heard that Flanagan, who was a talented soccer player with prospects of being signed by English or Scottish clubs, swung a blade at Ryan’s colleague.
During the first series of rape and assault trials at the Central Criminal Court last July, involving the charges against the teenagers, the court was told that all four came from “difficult” backgrounds. It was claimed that O’Neill was under the influence of one of the city’s criminal gangs. Local sources told the Sunday Tribune that the extent of the teen’s involvement with any of the main drugs gangs in the city was slight, at most.
Dean Barry, from Garryglass Avenue in Ballincurra, who was also 16 at the time he took part in the rape, has nine previous convictions, mostly for road traffic offences and theft. Darragh Ryan, who is also from Lenihan Avenue, and who was also 16 at the time of the rape, has convictions for assault, criminal damage and theft. The youngest of the teen-gang, Jason Ring, from Crecora Avenue, who was 14 when the rape was carried out, has since been convicted of theft.
After the four were convicted, gardai in Limerick noted a significant fall-off in criminal damage and theft in Ballincurra Weston and Prospect. O’Neill received a ten-year sentence, Dean Barry and Ryan received nine and eight years respectively, while Justice Paul Carney gave Ryan four years - the maximum for a person under 16 years.
But despite the four teenagers and the 25-year-old being locked away, locals still face crime on a regular basis.
One local councillor told the Sunday Tribune that residents in the Prospect area and Ballincurra "live daily with the blight of anti-social activity from young kids on drink and drugs.
“What these fellas did sickened the stomachs of every decent person in the city, and the stomachs of a lot that might only be called halfdecent, but there’s a lot of other young fellas robbing and terrorising people in the poorest parts of the city, getting only a slap on the wrist”.[/FONT][/SIZE]
Yes but a vibrant business community who are putting money into it
The golf clubs bit is funny - the pro shop at limerick go in ballyclough has sold a few expensive sets to some ‘interesting’ characters lately
Nathan Killeen, Limericks No 1 supporter
Is that not part of the Cork charm?The picturesque quaysides and the mixture of big streets and narrow smaller streets and i think it’s nice that the architecture in Cork is mainly victorian.It makes it stand out from Dublin and Limerick.In fairness the view from the city centre of the shandon steeple and the church up in Gurran is very nice!
The mixture of big streets with small streets? Wow, how unique.
Mainly irons? 
They are expecting more applications for membership and a little worried how to handle them
Lets face it, every town in Ireland has its shit holes…
:rolleyes:
Apart from the one that are s…
I can’t wait to see the get up on these yokels come Sunday. Old school wranglers, Clark shoes, straw hats with protruding sideburns and a denim shirt where an old Clare jersey can’t be found. It’s the talking through their teeth that makes them truely bizarre tho.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Pod-Mens-Shoes-Black-UK-Size-7-Boxed-with-Pod-Silver-Buckle-Style-Name-Cuba-/00/s/MTE5NVgxNjAw/z/gtEAAOxy0aBRomgL/$T2eC16N,!w0E9szN(muuBRomgLUv7g~~60_35.JPG
@chewy louie will be bringing the missus anyway.
#chewytheroaster
you’d always spot the once a year merchants from Clare at the Limerick Races on Stephen’s day.
Fellas with mad, rural heads and demented eyes on them walking around in circles up by the bar dressed up in ill fitting, cheap black suits and commonly wearing brown brogues with said father’s trousers.
They all have that familiar rustic look from cheap aftershave and shaving with a Bic disposal razor that is shared between the family. There wouldn’t be a woman in sight for obvious reasons but you’d catch them roaring like bollucks oustide the jacks in an attempt to mask their lack of confidence and drunkenly snare a young girl
They even sponsor Clare