world wide madness

Just as well its not a petrol fuelled warzone as it might be as dear with the price of the bloody stuff this weather, but while surfing on the woo woo woo, and reading some stories that have NOTHING to do with Limerick (and yes i know its a few weeks old) courtesy of the Clare Champion this article proved to be a good read. It appears as if Lahinch is in the wars and only gets the odd break from public order problems!! “The only time we get a break from the carry-on is during September when the crowds go to Lisdoonvarna instead,” one resident commented. OOps, Lisdoon is nearly over so more trouble ahoy, but it appears that the culprits are a bit posh!! One person commented - “Almost all the crowd who come here are under 23, and many younger than 21, so what we get is an immature crowd, who drink far too much, and act the maggot while they’re here. They are mainly yuppies away from home who spend the weekend down here drinking far too much.” Maybe, they are the Castletroy poshies on tour!!

And staying with the clare champion heres another very interesting story of rags to riches if ever there was one!! And quiet how people who were evicted from a council house end up staying in a €955 a night suite at Dromoland is beyond me!!

Not that we read the irish independant that often, but two stories in todays issue are interesting. One, about an alleged kidnap threat is here and of course because its associated with Limerick it is the front page headline. No prizes for guessing which family is involved. Maybe someday, the media will leave the (not so) poor people alone and let them live their lives in peace.


Meanwhile buried inside the paper- and this has nothing to do with limerick for a change is a story about a controversial play concerning the famine that is running in Sligo at the minute. "'F*** I'm Hungry' " is billed as "An Historical Portrait of The Great Famine" and one of the funnier bits of the poster is the warning that the plays contain "strong language and material that may be considered offensive by religious types and listeners to the Joe Duffy Show". Anything that could be considered offensive to whineline listeners must be worth a look.

More fatal accidents out the county over the weekend with two people losing their lives on Limerick roads. Also down the countyin Kilmallock, it appearst that one of the cities finest did a runner from some prison officers and is on the loose somewhere.

What with the recent severe increase in the price of petrol, it had to happen that someone would be found to be the dearest garage in the country and Pat Keoghs garage won that award last week. Of course, because its in Limerick it got splashed all over the papers as well. In a follow up this week the Post reports that the garage has now stopped selling petrol altogether!!! However, seeing as they were charging 1.29 a litre, i doubt whether too many people would have been buying in the first place!!

Normally it is a murder around town that makes news around town and there was one of sorts last week which appears to have involved a heroin transfer going wrong. It wasn't gang or fued related and looks as if it has been solved, but another event that happened during the week that has attracted a whole lot more attention is reported here. Two self proclaimed "scumbags" commited the heinous crime of digging up the hallowed ground of Thomond Park and then left a note- '“F**K THE GUARDS F**K THE SYSTEM SIGNED SCUMBAGS.” The strange goings on in this wonderful city at times neaver cease to amaze but why exactly people would go the trouble of digging about 490 holes in the pitch is certainly a bit of a head scratcher. The reaction as one would expect for anything to do with Limerick has been a bit over the top with front page coverage and main photo on the irish independent, headline sports news on most radio stations and it even made sky news! The end result is that the pitch will be unplayable until October 22. Munster’s first Celtic League game scheduled for September 23 will be transferred to Cork. Other local games have also had to be re scheduled and some transferred to other pitches.

Not my favourite organisation by any stretch of the imainiation but i had to laugh at how they made a balls up and forgot to allocate nearly 1,000 tickets for last weeks hurling final. Anything that costs them money makes me happy although begrudgingly i have to admit that Croke Park is an impressive joint these days. On local matters the minors lost out in the curtain raiser last Sunday. In football related matters it seems that the County board is to interview Paidi O'Shea about the county senior football job.

Silly season has finished as August is over- i just decided to take an extended vacation!! Some things stay the same however as the Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has once again had to stand up in defence of the city!! Citing Garda figures, the Sunday Tribune claimed that Limerick is the most dangerous place to live in Ireland with 27 people violently killed in the area since 2001. Minister O'Dea said the Tribune's lead story was "totally and utterly fabricated" and bears no resemblance to reality. "This is an old story that the Dublin media use to fill space during the silly season. This is absolutely old stuff rehashed that could be applied to any part of the country," said the Defence Minister. Same old stories, but once again the replies are justified!!

A great source of news around town is the discussion forum on boards.ie for Limerick City . It has loads of great stories and news. Where else would i have found out that Harvey Norman is coming to town next year?? - can't wait to hear Harveys ads on the radio for that!! Some of the most recent ones of note include a Full scale gang fight near the Parkway . Another one worth reading is about the rubber bandits who gained a good reputation for krank phone calls a few years ago and it looks as if they are back in business. Well worth checking out on a regular basis!

Gadget Launches

Once again, the nothing to do with Limerick section has some news. Two recently launched gadgets may be of note and indeed santa isnt that far way. The first is the Sony PSP for which Game on cruises st opened at midnight for the launch of the new console.

The official PSP website has all the information you need to keep the young and not so young boys and girls happy. In short it plays games (on yet another new format- UMD discs) but also plays music and lets you view your digital photos and indeed you can even compress dvd movies if you have the right software. All yours for a price starting at 255 euros.

Coming more recently has been the launch of the new ipodnano from apple. Its bloody small.. An extensive artice and interview is here.

. The Nano starts at 209 euros for the 2gig model and 259 for the 4gig model and you can order yours from either the apple store or from compub on Henry Street. Rumours are still flying that the main (ie bigger) ipod will be getting an upgrade in the next month or two and that a video version will soon be available, although Apple have denied they have any plans for this... A sure sign that something is afoot!