An interesting post on Cheebah relating to recent comments by public representatives concerning what they believe is a situation involving the construction of apartment blocks on the Dock Road.
In recent weeks, Senator Pat Kennedy came out with, in my opinion, amounts to blatent racism with a comment he made regarding the nationality of some of the tennants living in these apartment blocks.
“There are people there from all over the world, some from Afghanistan.There are some very serious fanatical people there”
Well butter my balls and call me a biscuit, Afghanistan you say. Now what would people think if we have Afghans amongst us. The amount of smoke inhaled from sitting in those local pubs every Tuesday, listening to peoples’s sob stories as they persue the acquisition of a corpo house has obviously damaged Senetor Kennedy’s brain.
What he fails to realise is one does not have to go all the way to Afghanistan to find fanatics. Outside of Dublin, Limerick is the biggest centre for Continuity IRA membership. But it is easier to rile people up about foreigners i guess, ay Pat? But someone has already beaten you when it comes to the use of the xenophobic card for electioneering. Noreen Ryan got there before you.
He also claimed that there was prostitution going on there. Prostitution is everywhere Senetor Kennedy. The “ladies of the night” were walking up and down the Dock Road and O’Curry Street long before these apartments were built. I suspect though that they are there as long as Limerick Docks are there. It makes you wonder why so many people want to keep the Docks open.
Also commenting on the percieved rampant prostitution in the area, “community activist” and Limerick Republican Information Service (hosted on a UK based company’s server) contributor Mick “the Quill” Ryan, dubbed the area Little Amsterdam. I would have to disagree with Cheebah’s belief that this is mere vote whoring on Ryan’s part in the run up to the General Election. Republican Sinn Fein refuse to stand for Dail elections on the grounds that it was a government set up by “the treaty” ergo, the Brittish created it, or some other nonsense like that. Yet Mr. Ryan ran in the last local elections. Limerick City Council was established by the Brittish in 1197 and the city received its charter from King John of England. in fact, all 32 counties were created by the British. Laois and Offaly, then known as Kings County and Queens County, were the first of the 32 counties to be created, by the British. Talk about double-standards. Either that or he hasn’t a clue what he is on about most of the time.
On the subject of his phrase “Little Amsterdam” well, that is just ignorance. For starters, prositution in Amsterdam is regulated, where as here in Limerick, it is not. In Amsterdam you will find scantily clad ladies dancing in windows, whereas in Limerick you will not.
Instead of berating the area, these two individuals, will need to do a few things, that is after they educate themselves on what the Dock Road is really like and after they desist from their own sensationalist attention whoring tactics. and they are:
- Get involved in the area rather than piss and moan about it
- In Senator Kennedy’s case, he could use his contacts in Limerick City council to have a community centre set up to facilitate the 1,000 apartments in the area, A green area nearby wouldn’t go astray either.
Cheebah had some questions for these two individuals also.
Why are there no noticeboards in any of the complexs? Surely a basic requirement if one is to try and build any type of community. Instead any notice, even lost dog notices are torn down off the walls by private management groups and stern warnings posted.
Why is a provision not included in these huge developments (estimate in one of these reports that there are 1000 apartments in close proximity) for a meeting room. This could be used for residents meetings (who would surely do a better job than the present private concerns). Also there is numerous other agencies who could try and impove social cohesion using such a room but no space.
Where is the provision for any type of green space or indeed recreational space. Every space that isn’t used for apartments seems to have been taken up by car parks.
What is the breakdown between 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. A report last week in Britain suggested that the proliferation of these type of units rather than 3 bedroom for example was pricing out people who would buy to live there in favour of those who just buy to let. Surely a more mixed set up would ensure stability and improve levels of interest in maintaining the blocks.
Why have neither of the above politicians gone into the complexs and tried to organise the residents, call meetings etc (apologies if they have but I have never seen one) Pat Kennedy represents Ward 4, as does the new mayor Joe Leddin, where the flats are located?
As LRIS does not have a public comments section, answers to these questions are unlikely from The Quill, you might get something from Senetor Kennedy’s secretary in Leinster House if your lucky.
The sad part about this is that because, on a slow news day between Monday and Wednesday, the likes of the Limerick Leader needs to fill it’s 24 pages with something, rants from people like this are what keep the paper going. In order to fill the paper, they have created a market for pontificators who know shag all about anything.
