Just Goes To Show, What We Have To Put Up With!

Karmafaerie

I just got an email from a girl in America.
(She's a friend of a friend, of a friend!)

She's about to come over to Limerick to do a semester in UL, and when she heard that I was from Limerick, she thought that she'd just ask me a few questions.
It seems she was terrified, because she had heard that Limerick was such a horrible place.
She had been told that Limerick was more violent than New York City!!!
She had heard such bad reports, that she was actually thinking of cancelling her trip, even though she'd wanted to go to Ireland all her life.
In fact, out of five students that were supposed to come over, three have changed their minds since hearing about our city!

And who gave her all these terrible reports on Limerick?
Her college football coach from Dublin!

It just shows you how half way across the world, we still end up having to put up with this crap, and we end up loosing out because of it.
It's bad enough that UL suffers because students from other parts of the country refuse to come here, but from America!

Worse that New york! FFS!!!:mad:

hobie

And who gave her all these terrible reports on Limerick?
Her college football coach from Dublin!

wonder if he told her the nearest airport was Dublin .... :mad:

ninty9er

There's loadsa yanks around UL so there's akind of support network for foriegn students. there's lots of International students from all over Europe, and as far away as China. there's absolutely loads of Chinese students in UL.

email her back and tell her that she need'nt even leave campus reallly while she's here

Karmafaerie

ninty9er wrote:

email her back and tell her that she need'nt even leave campus reallly while she's here

Why?!

It's not as if all the lies she was told are true!

ninty9er

Karmafaerie wrote:

Why?!

It's not as if all the lies she was told are true!

I said needn't, not shouldn't

Karmafaerie

ninty9er wrote:

I said needn't, not shouldn't

Ahh.

Liam Byrne

Tell her coach to read the stats from DublinCrime.com from this week and then stop throwing stones while stuck in a glasshouse.

Bottom line, coach is an ill-informed idiot; hope he's better at researching and checking out his facts for coaching, otherwise she's in for a tough career.

bazz26

Liam Byrne wrote:

Tell her coach to read the stats from DublinCrime.com from this week and then stop throwing stones while stuck in a glasshouse.

Bottom line, coach is an ill-informed idiot; hope he's better at researching and checking out his facts for coaching, otherwise she's in for a tough career.

Unfortunately it is a common analogy among a small few people from the pale who have never been beyond the Red Cow roundabout.

louthandproud

bazz26 wrote:

Unfortunately it is a common analogy among a small few people from the pale who have never been beyond the Red Cow roundabout.

Four shootings in recent days, a murder rate that is only parallelled by Dublin which is 10 times larger. The problems people face in Limerick, the normal majority of decent people that is, aren't caused by anyone in the pale or anywhere else. Simple fact is, it's a small few locals casuing the problems, so no point in blaming people from anywhere else. Serious crimes are reported by the media everywhere they happen, if there's an abundance in a small area then it gets highlighted.

I don't think anyone could seriously suggest that Dublin is somehow getting less media coverage over the serious crimes being committed there recently.

An unfortunate situation for all the nice people in Limerick I know. It's a city I lived in for many years and loved every minute of it, never even saw a bit of trouble. But no point in pi**ing off the media in the rest of the country by balming them. That may even put more of a spotlight on lovely Limerick.

Hope it gets better soon. And for anyone that reads this from outside Limerick. It isn't a dangerous place unless you are a scum-bag cocaine dealer!

Liam Byrne

louthandproud wrote:

Four shootings in recent days, a murder rate that is only parallelled by Dublin which is 10 times larger.

While there's lots of merit in your post, louthandproud, the above is the type of statement that adds to the confusion. I know you said "rate", but some people don't interpret that properly. Limerick's murder tally is 3 this year; Dublin's is way above this at 33. So the only thing that's roughly "parallelled" is the percentage, not the number of murders.

Ireland as a whole is getting more dangerous with gangland activity; Limerick, no more or no less, is reflecting this, but Limerick is the only place that gets a bad name and a dodgy nickname. That's hardly fair, is it ?

But yeah, I agree totally that 3 is 3 too many, even if they are dodgy individuals.

Hope it gets better soon. And for anyone that reads this from outside Limerick. It isn't a dangerous place unless you are a scum-bag cocaine dealer!

That's the other factor; many people murdered in Dublin are innocent bystanders with no relationship to crime or the people involved. Normal people are safe in Limerick. The same can't be said for Dublin.

If any reporting or comment reflects this, I (or anyone else in Limerick) won't "shoot the messenger ", but anything exaggerated is unfair and irresponsible.

motormouthmable

Just Goes To Show, What We Have To Put Up With!

we have to cope with this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/man-shot-dead-in-southill.html

and this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/homeowners-flee-as-estates-deteriorate.html

and this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/murder-victims-brother-in-court-after.html

and now this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/man-shot-in-city-centre.html

and not to forget this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/rlo-could-be-back-tomorrow-report.html

But anyway, I'm happy to announce that I eventually will leave that dirty, violent and derelict city. I hope I never have to come back and to live here as I made the most terrific experiences in this eyesore of a town.

Goodbye bloind people of the Limerick Board (a special thought for karmafaerie) and don't forget to blame the Dubliners and the press there for the violence in Limerick!

Liam Byrne

http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/rlo-could-be-back-tomorrow-report.html

But anyway, I'm happy to announce that I eventually will leave that dirty, violent and derelict city. I hope I never have to come back and to live here as I made the most terrific experiences in this eyesore of a town.

Which dirty, violent and derelict city would that be, motormouthable ? There's a hell of a lot of candidates for that, not least our capital.

Goodbye bloind people of the Limerick Board (a special thought for karmafaerie) and don't forget to blame the Dubliners

Not sure whether you meant "blond" or "blind" (or simply have a Joe Duffy accent) but I'm impressed! How did you know that karmafaerie has fair hair and can't see ? Was it Sindo-style investigative reporting ? Or did the dog and the cane give it away ? And how can you not be impressed at karma's standard of posts given that affliction ?

As for the Dubliners, well their music is a bit crappy but - aside from throwing their CDs out the window, they're hardly to blame for all the crime ?

and [blame] the press there for the violence in Limerick!

Missing the point AGAIN.....no-one came even remotely close to blaming the press for what DOES go on - that'd be kinda stupid, considering the press doesn't sell drugs or shoot at people (not bullets anyway).

The blame for that is squarely at the door of the scumbags involved; the issue that we have is the way the press print stories about stuff that DOESN'T happen, or that they multiply and exaggerate what does/did happen to make up sensationally crap tabloid headlines.

I don't know where news99.blogspot.com is based, but I'm off to have a look; if they reported the events as they happened without crap fictional headlines like "murder capital" or "stab city" or other brain-dead ****e, I've no problem with them; the problem is with rubbish like the Sindo and tabloids come up with.

Until you can realise the difference between what you think we object to and what we're really objecting to, then there's not much point discussing it - it'd be a bit like adding pears and apples (or, in the case of headlines and crap articles slandering Limerick) genetically-modified apples.

P.S. What is laugable is to read the background one of the people - an "election candidate" - quoted as complaining about people being intimidated out of estates; I wonder who the scumbags learned that tactic from ?

P.P.S [EDIT]I just checked one of the stories, and while the photos are bad, what editor decided to post 2 photos of the same spot from 2 different angles ? Is it an attempt to make the place look twice as bad (i.e. in case one burnt-out car in an estate isn't bad enough, make it look like there were two)

vkid

www.dublincrime.com
interesting!

NewsWire

Liam Byrne wrote:

what editor decided to post 2 photos of the same spot from 2 different angles ? Is it an attempt to make the place look twice as bad (i.e. in case one burnt-out car in an estate isn't bad enough, make it look like there were two)

i only posted what was e-mailed on to me in the press release...

Actually , now i thin of it, would a LimerickCrime.com be good idea or bad?

dv

motormouthmable wrote:

But anyway, I'm happy to announce that I eventually will leave that dirty, violent and derelict city. I hope I never have to come back and to live here as I made the most terrific experiences in this eyesore of a town.

Goodbye bloind people of the Limerick Board (a special thought for karmafaerie) and don't forget to blame the Dubliners and the press there for the violence in Limerick!

Blah blah blah...every city has good areas and bad areas...blah blah blah...you can concentrate only on negative if you want...blah blah blah...I just can't be bothered with this again.

I'm off for an eyetest...;)

mysterious

motormouthmable wrote:

we have to cope with this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/man-shot-dead-in-southill.html

and this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/homeowners-flee-as-estates-deteriorate.html

and this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/murder-victims-brother-in-court-after.html

and now this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/man-shot-in-city-centre.html

and not to forget this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/rlo-could-be-back-tomorrow-report.html

But anyway, I'm happy to announce that I eventually will leave that dirty, violent and derelict city. I hope I never have to come back and to live here as I made the most terrific experiences in this eyesore of a town.

Goodbye bloind people of the Limerick Board (a special thought for karmafaerie) and don't forget to blame the Dubliners and the press there for the violence in Limerick!

Then go!!!! And keep going. The region would be a whole brighter if people so poignant and negative like you left:D... To be brutaly honest. Seems practical too.

Btw, if this city is so "dirty" get off your ass and pick up the rubbish then, instead of us listening to your gripe.

Bare in mind Limerick beat Cork and Dublin in the litterwide campaign this year. That's all...:cool:

Liam Byrne

NewsWire wrote:

i only posted what was e-mailed on to me in the press release...

Fair enough - sorry if the criticism was misdirected. I do think that having both pics is an exaggeration, though.

Actually , now i thin of it, would a LimerickCrime.com be good idea or bad?

Depends on whether the Sindo is the webmaster .......it's odd that someone decided to put up the dublincrime.com one, since it emphasises the negative so much, but if it's factually based there's no argument against it.

In general any website is only worthwhile if there's enough content to keep it fresh; while Limerick might provide less content than elsewhere, it unfortunately would provide reasonably regular content; since Dublin has its own site first, someone somewhere obviously realised that it would provide plenty of opportunities to update it.

jonski

motormouthmable wrote:

But anyway, I'm happy to announce that I eventually will leave that dirty, violent and derelict city. I hope I never have to come back and to live here as I made the most terrific experiences in this eyesore of a town.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out , that would be a shame .

bazz26

motormouthmable wrote:

we have to cope with this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/man-shot-dead-in-southill.html

and this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/homeowners-flee-as-estates-deteriorate.html

and this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/murder-victims-brother-in-court-after.html

and now this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/man-shot-in-city-centre.html

and not to forget this
http://newswire99.blogspot.com/2006/12/rlo-could-be-back-tomorrow-report.html

But anyway, I'm happy to announce that I eventually will leave that dirty, violent and derelict city. I hope I never have to come back and to live here as I made the most terrific experiences in this eyesore of a town.

Goodbye bloind people of the Limerick Board (a special thought for karmafaerie) and don't forget to blame the Dubliners and the press there for the violence in Limerick!

Best of luck to you whatever other part of the country you are moving to. But if you are moving on the basis that there is less or no crime in other parts of the country well I can tell you from experience you are in for a real shock.

And we don't blame Dubs for our problems down here, I blame a few scumbag Limerick families for this problems. But what I for one don't like is misinformed people like the coach in the OP irrespecitive of his origins, spreading pub tales of rampant gun crazed drug lords roaming our city's streets and college campus like some sort of war zone, with absolutley no first hand knowledge of this other than he read it is a newspaper or seen the reports on tv. These are opinions formed by people as a result of misguided sensationalism in the name of jounalism.

bazz26

louthandproud wrote:

Four shootings in recent days, a murder rate that is only parallelled by Dublin which is 10 times larger. The problems people face in Limerick, the normal majority of decent people that is, aren't caused by anyone in the pale or anywhere else. Simple fact is, it's a small few locals casuing the problems, so no point in blaming people from anywhere else. Serious crimes are reported by the media everywhere they happen, if there's an abundance in a small area then it gets highlighted.

I don't think anyone could seriously suggest that Dublin is somehow getting less media coverage over the serious crimes being committed there recently.

An unfortunate situation for all the nice people in Limerick I know. It's a city I lived in for many years and loved every minute of it, never even saw a bit of trouble. But no point in pi**ing off the media in the rest of the country by balming them. That may even put more of a spotlight on lovely Limerick.

Hope it gets better soon. And for anyone that reads this from outside Limerick. It isn't a dangerous place unless you are a scum-bag cocaine dealer!

Nobody is blaming Dublin for our problems down here. But the comments in the OP by the coach are simply stupid, misguided and ill informed. That is like me saying to someone don't look for a job as an apprentice plumber in the Dublin area or your number is up.

louthandproud

Liam Byrne wrote:

While there's lots of merit in your post, louthandproud, the above is the type of statement that adds to the confusion. I know you said "rate", but some people don't interpret that properly. Limerick's murder tally is 3 this year; Dublin's is way above this at 33. So the only thing that's roughly "parallelled" is the percentage, not the number of murders.

Ireland as a whole is getting more dangerous with gangland activity; Limerick, no more or no less, is reflecting this, but Limerick is the only place that gets a bad name and a dodgy nickname. That's hardly fair, is it ?

But yeah, I agree totally that 3 is 3 too many, even if they are dodgy individuals.



That's the other factor; many people murdered in Dublin are innocent bystanders with no relationship to crime or the people involved. Normal people are safe in Limerick. The same can't be said for Dublin.

If any reporting or comment reflects this, I (or anyone else in Limerick) won't "shoot the messenger ", but anything exaggerated is unfair and irresponsible.

By rate I mean rate per head so 33 in Dublin for 1.5 or so Million roughly equates to 3 out of 100+ thousand in Limerick. That's all, I agreee with the rest of what you say, but inocent people can get caught in the cross fire anywhere, hopefully it'll never again on Shannonside. Don't forget that bouncer from Doc's.

Think Finglas and the likes have every bit as bad a name as parts of Limerick. Also being over defensive just encourages the bad mouthers. So pay no heed to generalisations. Focus on the good stuff, Dublin isn't that bad either.

Karmafaerie

motormouthmable wrote:

But anyway, I'm happy to announce that I eventually will leave that dirty, violent and derelict city. I hope I never have to come back and to live here as I made the most terrific experiences in this eyesore of a town.

Goodbye bloind people of the Limerick Board (a special thought for karmafaerie) and don't forget to blame the Dubliners and the press there for the violence in Limerick!

Santa must have gotten my letter after all!

louthandproud wrote:

By rate I mean rate per head so 33 in Dublin for 1.5 or so Million roughly equates to 3 out of 100+ thousand in Limerick.

I don't know how long you've been coming to this board , but I'm going to have to do what MMM likes best about me and bring the facts up again.

first off, if you want to refer to Dublins population of 1 1/2 million fair enough.
The population of Dublins 8 crime districts is 1,661,185.
But if taken by the same measure, the Limerick Crime district includes all of the city, all of the county, and all of county Clare. This means that when the annual garda reports come out, the Limerick Garda district, has a population of 294,663. Hardly 100,000 now is it.;)


To try and say that Dublin is on a par with Limerick for violence, murders, and crime is just not true.
As is pointed out here.
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2006/11/20/story18672.asp
Limerick had less crime per capita than Cork last year, and normally, the crime level between every city in Ireland is similar. With the exception of Dublin which has 2-3 time more crime per capita than anywhere else in the country. This isn't a one off thing either, but the same year in, year out.

Again, LAP, just to let you know, we're not saying that Limerick doesn't have a problem, or that there is no crime here.
Just that the national image of Limerick is unjust, as Limericks crime is identical to the crime levels in Cork, Galway and Waterford. And the media is to blame for encouraging and fuelling this negative stereotype.

ellenmelon

Karmafaerie wrote:

Santa must have gotten my letter after all!




I don't know how long you've been coming to this board , but I'm going to have to do what MMM likes best about me and bring the facts up again.

first off, if you want to refer to Dublins population of 1 1/2 million fair enough.
The population of Dublins 8 crime districts is 1,661,185.
But if taken by the same measure, the Limerick Crime district includes all of the city, all of the county, and all of county Clare. This means that when the annual garda reports come out, the Limerick Garda district, has a population of 294,663. Hardly 100,000 now is it.;)


To try and say that Dublin is on a par with Limerick for violence, murders, and crime is just not true.
As is pointed out here.
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2006/11/20/story18672.asp
Limerick had less crime per capita than Cork last year, and normally, the crime level between every city in Ireland is similar. With the exception of Dublin which has 2-3 time more crime per capita than anywhere else in the country. This isn't a one off thing either, but the same year in, year out.

Again, LAP, just to let you know, we're not saying that Limerick doesn't have a problem, or that there is no crime here.
Just that the national image of Limerick is unjust, as Limericks crime is identical to the crime levels in Cork, Galway and Waterford. And the media is to blame for encouraging and fuelling this negative stereotype.

hey karma,
im back home in nz and had a guy from galway come into work..got onto the topic of where i was living over there and he was like "oh, its a bit rough isnt it..stab city ha ha" and i was like well, there's a lot of cr*p spoken about limerick and even though i wasnt a huge fan of the city its not all bad! there wasnt a stabbing the near three years i was there...(whereas im back in "safe nz" and there's been serious crime happen already..and other horrible things before i got back, inc a 14 y/o kid killed in the back of a paddy wagon by another crim.) and where does he get his info on limerick? (he's been here 20 years..) the freaking indo website!!

Karmafaerie

ellenmelon wrote:

hey karma,
im back home in nz and had a guy from galway come into work..got onto the topic of where i was living over there and he was like "oh, its a bit rough isnt it..stab city ha ha" and i was like well, there's a lot of cr*p spoken about limerick and even though i wasnt a huge fan of the city its not all bad! there wasnt a stabbing the near three years i was there...(whereas im back in "safe nz" and there's been serious crime happen already..and other horrible things before i got back, inc a 14 y/o kid killed in the back of a paddy wagon by another crim.) and where does he get his info on limerick? (he's been here 20 years..) the freaking indo website!!

I wish I could say that I was surprised.:rolleyes:

jonski

On G Ryan show at atm , the Franciscans are setting up a priory in Moyross .

Karmafaerie

jonski wrote:

On G Ryan show at atm , the Franciscans are setting up a priory in Moyross .

You lost me at G Ryan!
I remember him talking of rocket propelled grenade attacks and running battles with assault riffles being a regular occurrence in the city before.
Haven't listened to him since!:mad:

dv

Monks Set for Moyross Move (Limerick Leader)

Liam Byrne

louthandproud wrote:

Think Finglas and the likes have every bit as bad a name as parts of Limerick. Also being over defensive just encourages the bad mouthers. So pay no heed to generalisations. Focus on the good stuff, Dublin isn't that bad either.

OK, I'm with you - but if that's the case, what's the "colloquialism" that the Sindo and Spin 1038 and the "comedians" use for Finglas ? And when's the last time you saw the Sindo publish a similar article about Finglas ?

As you said, there's no defence that Limerick is hugely better or worse than other places - I'd prefer it to Dublin or many other places, while other people wouldn't. That's not defensive - it's a fact.

Reporting on the good and bad points isn't a problem; the problem is purely how the papers and some other sections of the media pick on Limerick without admitting the fact that it's no different from elsewhere, and you'll very rarely see a "good news" story from Limerick in the Sindo.

****e happens here, and it needs to be sorted out - no argument. Even if it was just scumbags being directly affected, the city and its people are being affected if uninformed idiots in New York and New Zealand are spouting ****e. BUT if they're abroad and can't experience it first-hand, they rely on newspapers; it's their responsibility to rely on reliable newspapers and not talk about things they haven't a clue about, but the biggest problem lies with the media printing ****e in the first place.

On the flip-side, great things happen here and no-one is interested - e.g. Share-A-Dream's "Children of Courage" Award in the South Court Hotel last month, which the Sindo said SFA about.

louthandproud

Karmafaerie wrote:

Santa must have gotten my letter after all!




I don't know how long you've been coming to this board , but I'm going to have to do what MMM likes best about me and bring the facts up again.

first off, if you want to refer to Dublins population of 1 1/2 million fair enough.
The population of Dublins 8 crime districts is 1,661,185.
But if taken by the same measure, the Limerick Crime district includes all of the city, all of the county, and all of county Clare. This means that when the annual garda reports come out, the Limerick Garda district, has a population of 294,663. Hardly 100,000 now is it.;)


To try and say that Dublin is on a par with Limerick for violence, murders, and crime is just not true.
As is pointed out here.
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2006/11/20/story18672.asp
Limerick had less crime per capita than Cork last year, and normally, the crime level between every city in Ireland is similar. With the exception of Dublin which has 2-3 time more crime per capita than anywhere else in the country. This isn't a one off thing either, but the same year in, year out.

Again, LAP, just to let you know, we're not saying that Limerick doesn't have a problem, or that there is no crime here.
Just that the national image of Limerick is unjust, as Limericks crime is identical to the crime levels in Cork, Galway and Waterford. And the media is to blame for encouraging and fuelling this negative stereotype.

I should have included Murders in Clare and Croom then also, shouldn't I! No pint over arguing about exact figures anyway is there.

Think you are missing the point anyway. Dublin and Limerick are undoubtably the black spots when it comes to organised crime. Living neutrally I see a lot more news of Dublin than Limerick and I don't see anyone there blaming the media.

You'd be better served promoting all the good stuff that happens in Limerick, Munster rugby, Best University campus in the land, the music and craic in the city, and the low city centre crime rates etc..rather than bashing the national media. You just leave yourself open to more slagging off!

vkid

louthandproud wrote:

You'd be better served promoting all the good stuff that happens in Limerick, Munster rugby, Best University campus in the land, the music and craic in the city, and the low city centre crime rates etc..rather than bashing the national media. You just leave yourself open to more slagging off!

This has been a point of mine for ages. People are forever pushing the negative here in Limerick, from within is where it starts. The most negative publicity I see re this city is on the local media and indeeed the local blogs. The People need to stop with this Dublin media crap and begin with themselves. There is plenty to be proud of but all people keep doing is drawing up the crap. This board is becoming as bad as the blogs or the Limerickpost/Leader. I'd much prefer to be reading some positives rather than this crap all the time but some people in Limerick seem determined to keep reporting the negatives. Of course the nationals are going to carry stories of Limerick crime as it is a hot bed for gangland but there's no need to make it worse from within Limerick. Whinging about Dublin media is wearing very thin and linking every little report on Limerick in the nationals/radio/TV to every site/blog around just spreads it! A lot of them are non stories anyway so why make them any bigger by pushing the issue locally.

Amazotheamazing

Good luck in the move Mable, when you find a city in Ireland that isn't half derilict or dirty then be sure and report back. I'm not being bitchy, but as someone who lived in Limerick, Galway and Dublin I can confirm that it is an Irish problem that too many people have no interest in maintaining their city.

Anyhow, good luck with the move.