Speak up for Limerick

Liam Byrne

Odd that we need to say thanks to someone for speaking the truth and ignoring all the lies and hype, but I guess that's the environment that we have to deal with and we should be grateful that there are some intelligent people out there who can read between the lines of the national newspapers.

So in that context, yes - thanks are due to soldering iron from me too......pity there aren't more like you. :cheers:

soldering iron

well lads
if it was'nt for the hot blaa's down here i would move to limerick,keep youre heads up and the bad element will go away.Or start a campaign in limerick to stop buying Dublin paper that show limerick in a bad light.

Liam Byrne

soldering iron wrote:

well lads
if it was'nt for the hot blaa's down here i would move to limerick,keep youre heads up and the bad element will go away.Or start a campaign in limerick to stop buying Dublin paper that show limerick in a bad light.

Yeah, two mates of mine were down there and said as much.....they went back a second time!

We couldn't let the rags talk behind our back, though.....maybe we should arrange to cut off the banner and send 'em back, and then see what the beggars are up to?

soldering iron

Liam Byrne wrote:

Yeah, two mates of mine were down there and said as much.....they went back a second time!

We couldn't let the rags talk behind our back, though.....maybe we should arrange to cut off the banner and send 'em back, and then see what the beggars are up to?

We have cornered the tourist market with the Blaa, it a Waterford thing, what does Limerick have to compare to our Blaa.We have hang Blaa, red lead blaa, nackers carpet blaa,etc good positive vibes to Waterford if you get my meanng.

Rugby now there the most positive thing yeah have, Munster's home town what a great City seller that should be

louthandproud

Jas*s will ye ever give up worrying about the national media's opinion of Limerick. Every time a discussion on Limerick starts there's far more emphasis on the "Dublin" media than on Limerick itself. Didn't my home town in Louth get called the rape capital of Ireland by someone in the media a year or two ago, the only way to deal with that is ignore it, not by attacking it. That just brings more bad press.

It may well be true that Limerick gets a hard time but there has been some high profile crimes down there in recent years. And there has been innocents caught up in it too, that can happen anywhere where thugs are attacking each other. Someone above suggested that doesn't happen in Limerick (Rose tinted glasses). I am quite a fan of Limerick and lived there for many years until my work caused me to relocate. But I and I assume many others are getting sick of all the reverse bashing of the media that is coming out of Limerick.

There was even complaints of too much rain in the Angela's ashes film a few years back. Ye woulddn't want to get a name as a bunch of moaners now would ye?

Dublin does have more crime than Limerick (and less rain lol). I read the papers every day too, don't think anyone in Dublin or the media would try and deny that. However Limerick does have some serious problems too, albeit with a minority, but isn't that the same everywhere.

So build the preverbial bridge and get over yerselves. Enjoy the city you have and f the begrudgers.

Karmafaerie

LAP, you know that the impression given by the media about Limerick is false, and so do most people that come here.
But the problem is that those that have never been, and often never will, believe this and harp on to other people about it.
I've lost rack of the amount of times I'll be talking to someone from the other side of the world and when the discover I'm from Limerick, straight away they ask me about the crime.
Because of this media coverage, our city is known worldwide for being crime infested!

Can you not see how that bothers us, when we have a national average level of crime?

You mentioned Louth being named the capital of rape in a paper. Okay, now imagine every second day having that brought up in the media. Imagine every media story about Louth good or bad being brought back to it. Imagine the impression being given to others that you'll be raped as soon as you cross the border. Imagine having to live with the moniker of "Rape City" Imagine people all over the world hearing the name Louth and automatically thinking of rape.
This is what we have to put up with, and the main reason is the misleading and false journalism, of which 90% of which is Dublin based/biased.

Take that show on TV the other night about the highs and lows of 2007.
The third worst thing in Ireland this year was "Violent Crime In Limerick".
On a year when hardly a week went by without some gangland killing in Dublin. When there was only I think three murders in Limerick compared to around 35 in Dublin. Limerick again gets the blame for everything.
Shock horror, I never expected that!:eek: :rolleyes:

I can see where you're coming from man, but you have to see where we're coming from aswell.

vkid

Have to agree and said it before on here. It starts from within. The more people go on about it the more the issue is to the fore..
Most of the negative stuff comes from the Red tops like the star/sun etc (and the indo which isnt far from a red top anyway). Personally i think RTE and a few others media outlets are recently highlighting that it only a very small minority in the city that is causing the problems. Its a pity that Limerick people cant focus more on the positives. Not really from Limerick but i've spent a lot of time here and it has loads of positives that the people from the city should be focussing on. Start from within and ignore the begrudgers. The media thing is wearing thin

Liam Byrne

I'm not actually too worried about the Dublin media (the ones that pull these stunts can go f**k themselves if they think they're getting a cent from me ever again) .....my worry is the gullible people that read them...

Everything you say is right, louthandproud - Limerick is MORE-OR-LESS JUST LIKE EVERYWHERE ELSE, in both good and bad terms; some extra good (rugby, redevelopment, general crime rate) some less so (rain and a share of psychotic drug gangs that seems to be only comparable to Dublin) but (as I said before) we're entitled to point out when the media screws up or exaggerates the coverage, aren't we ?

Imagine if some tabloid abroad decided to insult and slander Ireland and Irish people......we'd all be up in arms (metaphorically speaking )

I've never heard Louth referred to as the rape capital, but someone in the U.S. reads the s**b c**y and accompanying snide slurs from the Sindo website and passes it on without checking it......since the people who read and believe the rags involved without question (and that's not a slur, since I myself had read lots of stuff in the Sindo over the years thinking that it wasn't a tabloid),

It's obvious to those in the know that the papers involved are full of lazy journalists who couldn't research facts in a fit, but a solution needs to be found (best solution - get them to hire proper researchers) and in the meantime there is nothing wrong with correcting them on their prejudices and lack of facts.

Any corrections do need to be dispassionate and objective, though - as otherwise it will look like simply moaning.

As for enjoying the city and its people - no problem; I have been doing so for years and will continue to do so.....there is nowhere else in Ireland that I'd rather live, and though I would consider Cork or Waterford (or maybe Galway - nice to have a beach) if I had to, Dublin ain't an option in my book.

Karma is spot-on, though......every time something GOOD happens here, someone drags up the crap when putting it in the media (see thread re Sindo's jealous crap on Munster), so it's not us that raise it.

One thing though, Karma - Dublin's had gang violence and murders for years (how long since Veronica Guerin now? and that was the END of that period of gangland violence) so maybe the news that Limerick had some crime was indeed the 3rd story of 2007 because it was unexpected ? Maybe Dublin is so bad now that 35 murders in a year doesn't cause anyone to bat an eyelid ?

soldering iron

3 under 21 's in a row , and still no All Ireland,an All Ireland, this would be a great boost for the generial population of limerick, but that will be next year for we the Deise are ging to win 2007 lol

louthandproud

The next time I'm fortunate enough to get down to Limerick (hopefully to see the red boys of Munster (not a Leinster fan at all)) Maybe I'll bump into one of you and discuss this over a pint one one of Limerick's many fine bars. Looks like we are pretty much in agreement in principle on the above but maybe not completely overall, but sure wouldn't the world be a boring place if we all fully agreed wth eachother!

Munster Abú!

fly_agaric

Coonagh Cowboy wrote:

if you only concentrate on the bad things of a city then that is all you will see,and you blind yourself to the greater things the city itself is really all about.

....

Coonagh Cowboy wrote:

I've lived in dublin for a few years and to be honest all i ever found were very rude people and scam artists and yes there were stabbings and drug related offenses going on every night,so any one who is trying to sugar coat dublin is wasting their time.

LOL! Really, I did snigger, honest.:)

Liam Byrne wrote:

No-one says "Dublin is a ****hole" because of the 5% or whatever of joyriders and knackers, but people happily spout similar crap about Limerick.

Well, in fairness, people regularly say/imply that areas of Dublin with populations similar to that of Limerick are "shítholes".

I don't read the tabloids but stuff I have read about violence in Limerick/seen on RTE [generally??] makes clear that it's focussed on certain areas/families.

iguana

soldering iron wrote:

Or start a campaign in limerick to stop buying Dublin paper that show limerick in a bad light.

Not a bad idea, the Sun really suffered in Liverpool after the bull it published after the Hillsborough disaster.

What the hell is a blaa?

Karmafaerie

louthandproud wrote:

The next time I'm fortunate enough to get down to Limerick (hopefully to see the red boys of Munster (not a Leinster fan at all)) Maybe I'll bump into one of you and discuss this over a pint one one of Limerick's many fine bars. Looks like we are pretty much in agreement in principle on the above but maybe not completely overall, but sure wouldn't the world be a boring place if we all fully agreed wth eachother!

Munster Abú!

Abú.

iguana

iguana wrote:

What the hell is a blaa?

I educate myself. Blaa

Liam Byrne

fly_agaric wrote:

people regularly say/imply that areas of Dublin with populations similar to that of Limerick are "shítholes".

So what are they saying ? It's a question of size ?

If that is the case, they're out of line on 2 fronts; one, there's no proof that 99% of people in those areas of Dublin aren't normal, decent people and two, if they are calling those areas s*****les, why bring Limerick into the comparison at all ?

Told ya people drag Limerick into unfavourable comparisons at any vague opportunity

L&P, if you're ever coming down this way, pop us a PM and I'll take you up on that pint and discussion offer........but we'll check first if solderingiron can organise to bring up a few blaas in case our general agreement makes the conversation run dry

[EDIT]Ooops.....just checked iguana's link.....I thought a blaa was a hot Waterford chick ?[/EDIT] :dunce:

Andystoran

I was born in Limerick and have spent time in waterford and am now living in Cork. Limerick is rough, rougher than other cities. That i am used to. Again if you dont go looking for hassle youll be ok.
What i dont like about Limerick is that there is such a lack of variety in the nitelife. Crap pubs and clubs.
What i like about limerick is its the easiest city iv ever been in to get a taxi.:)

Amazotheamazing

I agree about the pubs, but at least this is slowly changing, places like the Wicked Chicken, Micky Martins and Players are improving things, albeit very slowly. There's a few more late bars knocking around too.

soldering iron

iguana wrote:

I educate myself. Blaa

first thng in the morning with loads bbutter on it , man you just can not beat it, waterford tradition
what Limerick!!! "cottage"????

soldering iron

Told ya people drag Limerick into unfavourable comparisons at any vague opportunity

L&P, if you're ever coming down this way, pop us a PM and I'll take you up on that pint and discussion offer........but we'll check first if solderingiron can organise to bring up a few blaas in case our general agreement makes the conversation run dry


yes it would be a pleasure for me to visit that treaty stone city , where patrick sarcfeild fought so bravely for irish freedon.blaa are peice of bread eaten in the morning with lots of butter, they can be eaten plain or even filled with the extras (ie) red lead, nacker carpet, crisps, cheese etc.
I will if ticket permitt go to a munster match this year, and would bring the wounderfull blaa with me.
Positive thinking and using the positive side of this great city is the only way to shrug off the cloud of avoidance that the generial public have about Limerick.

ps avoid using the song "limerick your a lady" please

vkid

Andystoran wrote:

What i dont like about Limerick is that there is such a lack of variety in the nitelife. Crap pubs and clubs.
What i like about limerick is its the easiest city iv ever been in to get a taxi.:)

have to agree. the nitelife still needs a swift kick up the arse. Would rarely go to a club in Limerick and if i do its kicking and screaming. Definitely a few options needed in the nite life

fly_agaric

Liam Byrne wrote:

So what are they saying ? It's a question of size ? ...Told ya people drag Limerick into unfavourable comparisons at any vague opportunity

No, I was trying to remind you and others that Limerick is hardly the only place in Ireland that gets bad press. I was not trying to compare Limerick to those areas in Dublin in anything other than the way a similar amount of people get tarred with a broad brush by the "Dublin";) media when something bad happens...

Liam Byrne

No worries.....(I did put a "wink" in there!).....just thought it was funny how Limerick turns up in all sorts of odd comparisons

soldering iron

Liam Byrne wrote:

No worries.....(I did put a "wink" in there!).....just thought it was funny how Limerick turns up in all sorts of odd comparisons

well
Me again how do you cover up the fact that a city is out of controll (Dublin), find a scape goat with a little hipcups here and there .If you high light another City's ill this will throw the lime light from the real crime City, and so the Dubliners have shifted the criminal tag from their hell hole on to Lmerick,clever what??????????;)

louthandproud

soldering iron wrote:

well
Me again how do you cover up the fact that a city is out of controll (Dublin), find a scape goat with a little hipcups here and there .If you high light another City's ill this will throw the lime light from the real crime City, and so the Dubliners have shifted the criminal tag from their hell hole on to Lmerick,clever what??????????;)

No point in having a go at people for generalising about Limerick only to blame "Dubliners" for trying to shift the spot light away from them. I'm not from Dublin myself but as it is the Capital city it is where most of the media is located. However the individuals in the media may or may not be "Dubliners".

I have just been listening to people from Swords complaining on the news (national) that there is too much crime in their area, none of them put forward any suggestion that Limerick was a worse place. They were quite willing to highlight the high level of crime in their own area in the hope maybe that something would be done about it, rather than worrying about what people might think of their home town.

Dublin is out of control(arguably), but I havn't heard many Dublin people other than the minister responsible suggest otherwise. True there may have been some unbalanced reporting of events in Limerick, but I'm not altogher convinced that Limerick has as bad a reputation as people here keep highlighting.

I'm not trying to have a go at you soldering iron, just trying to keep things balanced. Remember speak up for Limerick, don't do the very thing that has been criticised here by people in defence of Limerick, that being generalising about people from another city.

Liam Byrne

Two quickies, louthandproud:

I'm not altogher convinced that Limerick has as bad a reputation as people here keep highlighting

I wish that were indeed the case, but check the Sindo or check with the idiot coach in the U.S.

Indeed, on hols in the Canaries last year I had to bite my lip when some idiot from Armagh followed up my answer to where we were from by using that famous colloquialism.....Talk about kettle, pot! I was gonna say something like "that name only applies coz we can't get guns as easily as people up your way"; as you say, that would be lowering myself to his level of prejudice, as I'm sure that there are many, many fine people up there, but what better way to highlight to someone how ignorant they're being than by pointing it out in the most obvious way ?

Funnily enough, my mate dragged me away from the conversation just in case the guy was "one of those", and it highlighted that, for all Limerick's reputation, it must be pretty obvious that it's untrue because no-one in their right mind would blatantly insult or provoke someone who was actually from a violent area.

However the individuals in the media may or may not be "Dubliners".

Very true, and I've never said that the Dubs are at fault (other than a few uninformed/ignorant ones trotting out the insult). In general, I've always said that some of the "Dublin-based media" is at fault, and that can hardly be disputed too much if you look at some of the crap they've printed ? If those are people from other counties who are living in Dublin, so be it, but they're then the ones who are ignoring the stuff happening under their noses.....maybe they're too scared to write about it because they're from there, given what happened to Veronica Guerin ? I don't know, but the only reason we even have a thread called "Speak up for Limerick" is because some people, some place, constantly decide to put it down; so this thread is merely redressing the balance - it doesn't necessarily need to be completely balanced itself, as long as all the facts can be backed up.

Although in I'm starting to question the point of this thread; we seem to be generally preaching to the fair-minded and converted - no-one with an agenda against Limerick would probably bother to visit here to read the other/real side of the story......

soldering iron

I'm not trying to have a go at you soldering iron, just trying to keep things balanced. Remember speak up for Limerick, don't do the very thing that has been criticised here by people in defence of Limerick, that being generalising about people from another city.

I would be the first to admit that the newspaper reporters are not all from Dublin, but there are around 80,000 people living in limerick city.the vast majority are good law biding citizens, they do the normal things that normal folks do .Dublin has a population of 1,200,000 and the vast majority of them are also law boding citizens, so why is that limerick is high lighted more than Dublin in the national news papers.
the balance is a little one sided toward a city that is a lot smaller than dublin,keep the spot light off the capital.
waterford has it fair of these kind of individuals, but there is never the TV/media coverage of these events,Why??
As i pointed out it saddens me to see this city Limerick been down trodden by both TV/MEDIA of Ireland.

louthandproud

Liam Byrne wrote:

Two quickies, louthandproud:

I wish that were indeed the case, but check the Sindo or check with the idiot coach in the U.S.


Funnily enough, my mate dragged me away from the conversation just in case the guy was "one of those", and it highlighted that, for all Limerick's reputation, it must be pretty obvious that it's untrue because no-one in their right mind would blatantly insult or provoke someone who was actually from a violent area.
......

One point, Armagh is a part of the country that I am very familiar with, I wuldn't say it is more or less violent than anywhere else, albeit with a history of sectarianism, but I go out there regularly enough and it isn't evident. Perhaps they are also victims of the media, and if so it would seem that Limerick isn't the only place to suffer in this regard.

As far as the Shindo goes, I wouldn't let it in through the door of my house.

But yes I think we are the converted.

Liam Byrne

One point, Armagh is a part of the country that I am very familiar with, I wuldn't say it is more or less violent than anywhere else, albeit with a history of sectarianism, but I go out there regularly enough and it isn't evident. Perhaps they are also victims of the media, and if so it would seem that Limerick isn't the only place to suffer in this regard.

I agree completely......my considering saying it to the guy wouldn't have been as some ill-informed dig, but would have been exactly as you say....in the hope that he would've seen what it was like to be generalised indiscriminately and inaccurately, and might have realised what it feels like and that it shouldn't be done.

Whether or not he'd have spotted the point of my comment and realised his mistake (debatable, considering his IQ didn't allow him consider that his opinion was flawed and ill-informed) is another issue - maybe my mate was right to nudge me away

Karmafaerie

Let's put it this way shall we.
Anyone here not know about "Google Fight"?
Basically, it's an engine that allows you to enter in two different topics, and see which one gets the most hits.
Usually it's used by childish people who want to discover if there's more about sex or God on the Internet!
(It's Sex by the way! Sex vs God)

It can however be quite useful.

Firstly, I checked it with two simple topics.
Topic One: Limerick
Topic Two: Dublin
Here's the result.
As you can see, 72,400,000 for Dublin, 12,500,000 for Limerick, Almost 6 times the difference.

Secondly I checked these topics.
Topic One: Limerick Crime
Topic Two: Dublin Crime
Here again is the result.
All of a sudden it drops to 1,540,000 for Dublin Crime, and 827,000 for Limerick Crime. Less than twice as many for this one, where it was almost six times more a minute ago.

Next I tried to narrow it down some more.
Topic One: Limerick Crime Media
Topic Two: Dublin Crime Media
Here you go.
As you can see, it drops again. 1,080,000 for Dublin Crime Media, and 682,000 for Limerick Crime Media.

In case the wording was off, I tried this.
Topic One: Limerick Crime News
Topic Two: Dublin Crime News
Here.
A similar difference with 1,280,000 for Dublin Crime News, and 725,000 for Limerick Crime News.

Why has a city with about ten times the population, and about four times the crime per capita, have less than twice as many hits?!
Simple. Cause Limerick is always pushed into the light, by the media.
I know you may not agree with me on this personally L&P but you can't argue with those facts.

louthandproud

Not going to argue with your stats. You know what is said about stats.....

I agree Limerick does get quite a lot of media attention, but personally if there was crime in my own area the more attention it gets the better. It's the bad attention and loose comments that are a problem so not sure if stats captures that. Thing's like 'Stab City' & 'Rape Cpaital' <-- My town apparently,
are damaging to a town/citys rep. Actual crime should be more reported everywhere in my opinion so that the finance minister is shown up for the failure that he is.

I understand your frustration but I think as several contributers here including some from Limeick have said, there is a problem. I personally think one or two crimes in Limerick during 2006 affecting innocents was what brought about the a lot of the extra attention in the media, in a similar way to what Baibe Salutes murder brought attention to Dublin and in particular Swords.


I really don't think constantly comparing Limerick to Dublin is of any use. In fact in recent weeks I've hardly heard a mention of Limerick crime in the media but have been hearing about Dublin almost on a daily basis.

We really should have this conversation over a pint!