Where Gardai fear to thread..
national |
bin tax / household tax / water tax |
news report 
Sunday September 17, 2006 13:55
by John McDermott - removefiannafail
Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
It is not an easy task selling your house in some parts of Limerick.Perhaps the mcDowell reserves can be mobilized.?
IF the mood on the doorsteps in the sprawling Limerick housing estate of Southill is a microcosm of nationwide anti-Government sentiment, then Fianna Fail and the PDs can expect a real hammering-here at least- at the polls next June
Working-class estates such as Southill, where there is an inevitable distrust of the political system, were never going to be happy hunting grounds for a Government half way through its second term.
But in this mammoth local authority housing sprawl of some 1,200 homes, Government parties are not likely to get just frustration and disaffection on the doorsteps, they can expect outrage and spleen.
Essentially in an area where anti-social behaviour has become an all too prevalent problem for the many decent folk that live here, Southill is a no-go area for Government parties.
"I'd tell them where to go if they came to my door. They did nothing for us here, nothing," said local Theresa Clohessy. "They never come around here - only at election time when they want your vote."
Theresa's response is typical in Keys Park - along with O'Malley Park and Carew Park, it's one of three estates that make up the greater Southill area.
Property in these estates is unsaleable due to the level of crime violence and intimidation.If you have S.A.S. training or happen to be an asylum seeker cum retired mercenary from Angola,or maybe Liberia you may consider snapping up a bargain.A nice two bedroomed house here sells for 25-30 thousand euros.!
No dark complexioned african folk have yet sought refuge here however..nor is it likely they ever will.
If they were fleeing from civil wars in distant Africa it is likely they would feel that they had not travelled too far.Neither Noel Conroy or Michael McDowells writ runs in these estates.
Stick wielding ten year olds assault postmen, busdrivers and the fire crews who attempt to douse the numerous burning cars which brighten the night skies here weekly.The buses no longer enter these estates. it is doubtful if car insurance companies still cover fire and thieft.If you enter it on foot be prepared for the worst
In June 20004 a GP treated eight seperate incidents of gang rape,including a pregnant woman in her twenties,a girl aged 12 and an eighty year old.
Gardai received one formal complaint.!
Three key issues dominate on the doorsteps: economic exclusion with high unemployment, anti-social behaviour and the absence of a bus service. The service was for a time cancelled due to vandalism and intimidation of drivers.Southill is in ward three, a mostly working-class area of the city where Fianna Fail polled just 19.1pc of votes last time out. Some forecasters are predicting that this time their vote could drop to the mid-teens.
Labour in 1999 grabbed 23.5pc of the vote but committed political suicide by running five candidates and ended up with no seat.Labour's main challenger to a seat in the local elections in 2004 was Independent candidate Michael Kelly, who was shot in the head a month prior to theelections.
In O'Malley Park,, there is not so much anti-Government but an anti-politician sentiment. Local,Mary O'Connor, with moderate and well-reasoned views on local issues, says for the first time ever she has decided not to vote.
"I always voted but at the moment we are treated like second-class citizens."
One very optomistic property from Moyross estate is on the De courcy web site at an asking price of 60,000€ but the owner may be doing well to get 40,000@ for the lovely 3 bed house in the city which Fianna Fail have long abandoned to the merciless feuding wolf packs that dwell within its sprawling working class estates.
To Hell or to some parts of Connaught. Abandon hope in both places. The only celtic tigers roaming free here are mobsters and their offspring.
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3Most mainstream press are spinning that the problems in Limerick are down to 'anti-social' behavior.
Ex Fine Gael (blueshirt) leader Michael Nonan was on the radio last week, suggesting the same. He used this opportunity to have a go at the current government. He also suggested that he was a frequent visitor to Moyross. As a former resident and a person who does visit Moyross frequently, I know that Michael's use of the word 'frequent' is very liberal indeed.
I grew up in Glennagross, which was the epicentre of violence and 'anti-social' behaviour in Moyross when I was younger. The 'Glennagross' issue was fixed by our caring authorities, by renaming it.
If one tours Moyross, one is struck by all the burnt-out and boarded-up houses, and by the fact that for the most part, Moyross is fenced off from the rest of the world (Razor wire on top of walls more than 12foot high, is particularly striking). Moyross is the template for a 'prison housing estate' and all its inmates are under arrest.
The media and powers that be, have spun the idea that the Gardaí frequent Moyross, and that they police the place. This is blatent fabrication. I remember one time (only a few years back) being in a friends bungalow there. Some people kicked in the door whilst screaming threats at me (my friend - a taxi driver - was at work at the time - and the people screaming threats at me didn't know me). I escaped out the back door an all but jumped over a ten foot fence to a neighbours back garden.
I made my way to my friend's mother's house and phoned the Gardaí and my friend. My friend arrived within minutes and we went back to his bungalow to await the 'guardians of the peace.' The people who had broken in, were congregated a few bungalows down from my friend's house and drinking outside when we arrived. We didn't approach them, but went into the bungalow to await the Gardaí. Three hours later, we decided to call back to my friend's mother to see what had become of the Gardaí and my 999 call.
We were told that the Gardaí were on their way. We went back to the bungalow to await this. When we arrived we were just in time to witness some of the same pack, who'd initially broken into the house, running out of the bungalow with my friend's belongings. One man stopped to throw my friends stereo at the car we were in (this man, a couple of months later, butchered a man in an other area of Moyross and was the first person to be tried and convicted of such a charge in courts outside Dublin). As we witnessed this, a patrol car finally came into view. We gave chase (in the car) and apprehended two of the criminals inside the grounds of the local church. The Gardaí followed the rest of the pack but apprehended nobody.
We handed the two scumbags over to the Gardaí. We told the Gardaí our stories and named names. We brough to the attention of the Gardaí some cans (the criminals had been drinking whilst in my friend's bungalow, and had left empty cans in his bedroom) and they were recovered by the Gardaí for fingerprint evidence.
The two criminals we'd apprehended for the Gardaí were released by the Gardaí that night (and were never prosecuted).
My friend and I were advised to sleep elsewhere that night and we did so. My friend's home was subsequently burnt down that night. No prosecutions in relation to this ever happened.
A young man who was butchered a few months later on the streets of Moyross, would probably be alive today, if the authorities had given a damn.
More justice - Limerick style: Free the murderers and jail the witnesses - http://indymedia.ie/article/77642
An examination of Irish Justice: Murder is more than an image thing - http://indymedia.ie/article/75087
A breakdown of Irish Law: Crime, a child of need or greed? - http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73972
You forgot to include Kincora Park as one of the areas in Southill.
A report out today (Sept 20th) from bankers Halifax says that public servants are having difficulty buying houses in the country's major cities and that of the five largest cities (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford) gardai and nurses cannot afford to buy houses in four. The exception is Limerick where house prices are a bit cheaper (as confirmed in above story). This could be quite handy if it resulted in an influx of gardai and nurses into Limerick. The gardai could try solving some of the crime problems and take on the rival gangs, while the nurses could give medical treatment to the victims of both sides!
Usually you will find that the gardai marry the nurses. (I'd love to see the statistic for garda / nurse marriages).
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