Limerick Blogger - independent Limerick news, sport, events and forum

Entertainment is back in Limerick this weekend. From street party to sporting festival, Limerick is where its at ths weekend as the city prepares to welcome an extra c.1,500 visitors to the shores of the Shannon. So get involved, here are the details…

Friday - Open Air Street Party - Bedford Row

Limerick City Council and the Bedford Row traders are celebrating the completion of Bedford Row with a FREE BBQ, street entertainments including STILT WALKERS, FIRE BREATHERS, CLOWNS, FACE PAINTERS, etc., and LIVE MUSIC. BBQ starts at 4, music at 5.

Saturday - Grant Thornton European Cup (soccer) - University of Limerick

This Saturday 500 accountants from all over Western Europe will come to Limerick; Irelands Sporting Capital, to compete in a five a side soccer tournament. Bringing with them over 500 fans. 71 teams of men and women from Grant Thornton offices will converge on the University of Limerick on Saturday in a bid to win the prestigious title.

The Grant Thornton European Cup is a real first for Limerick however, as this is the first time Ireland has hosted this event following an outstanding victory by the Limerick men’s team in Manchester last year.And Brendan Lane, Partner with Grant Thornton, is also looking forward to Saturday: “We are delighted to welcome the 1,000 players and fans to Limerick. It promises to be a great day and a wonderful showcase for the cityâ€?.

Each of the 51 men’s teams and 20 women’s teams will play seven minutes a side in the knock out tournament which has been “superblyâ€? organised by Eoin Killackey at UL, explained a spokesperson from Limerick Co-ordination Office.

Saturday - The Pig and Porter Tag Rugby Festival - Old Crescent Rugby Club

55 teams, both professional and social, from all over Ireland and England, will be competing at this event, attracting hundreds to the city. Now in its fifth year running, the Pig and Porter Tag Rugby Festival, which is sponsored by Guinness, was a huge success last year, according to organiser Anthony O’Dwyer.

“The tag rugby festival is ran by the Irish Tag Rugby Association (ITRA) which is a branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). It is a fantastic event for the city. And next year we are hoping to make the event a real international one with teams from all over Europe.

And this Saturday promises to be a great day out for all the family with plenty of tag rugby, live bands, a pig on the spit and BBQ and face painting and children’s entertainment,� he explained

Travel Details and Weather

Bedford Row is in the heart of Limerick City, accessable from all in-bound bus routes.

The University of Limerick is serviced by the 308 bus (departing from William St).

Old Cresent Rugby Club is not serviced by bus, it is in Rosbrien ( the grounds are just off dooradoyle exit on New Cork Road)

Weather Saturday will be sunny with a high of 25C, Friday will be partly cloudy with a high of 23C - so get out and enjoy the weekend

The two remaining parties involved in the bid for the new South West youth radio license will lay out their plans at a public forum in Limerick next week. ‘Red FM South West’ and ‘Spin South West’ will both attend a hearing at the Castletroy Park Hotel next Monday, July 17th, at 2pm.

Both parties already have experience in youth radio, Red FM hold a Cork license while Spin hold a Dublin license. The only other group to submit an application, Fresh FM, have already been ruled out after their application was considered not to be of sufficient standard to qualify for the second phase in the licensing process.

At this hearing each applicant will make a presentation followed by a question and answer session with the Board of the Commission.

A decision on the license is expected on September 4th.

Twice in the one week no less…. Shamrock Rovers were back in town again last night for an Eircom League match (as opposed to the cup game previous) and once again were on the wrong end of a 1-0 defeat thanks to a second half goal from the home team who also missed a penalty! Hogan park witnessed its biggest crowd of the season where the away support outnumbered the home crowd but thats hardly news! Paul Rose scored the winner in the 56th minute and the margin would have been doubled but for the Rovers keeper Barry Murphy saving a 73rd minute Jon Lester penalty. An element of the Shamrock Rovers supporters let their side down by being involved in sporadic skirmishes with the Gardai who were present in numbers at the ground. The hoops fans were also ejected from Finnegans pub on their way to the match and broke glasses and upturned tables on the way out. Let them off back to Dublin… Limerick’s advantage in the league first division is now back up to four points courtesy of the victory last night.
Limerick have been given a home draw against Derry City in the eircom league cup which will take place on the week of the 7th of August.

in no particular order…

Limerick scored a 1-0 victory in the eircom league cup tonight thanks to a 44th minute free kick by John Lester….

The Space Shuttle Discovery took off last night with its Limerick related CASPER expirement on board.

The Bank pub, restaurant and night club on O Connell St is for sale. Auctioneers Hickey O’Donoghue appear to be moving offices shortly. They aren’t going too far though as their new office will be across the road! The new hotel going up out near Krups is going to be a Choice Quality Hotel and is due to open in the next month or so, as is the refurbished George Hotel in the city centre. The Quality hotel is already advertising its leisure centre which is due to open in September. Some ex staff from Savins hi fi and the Sony galleria shop on O’Connell St are shortly going to open a new hi fi and tv appliance shop at the top of William St. More info on that shortly but the shop will be called future sound and vision.

The managers of a backpackers hostel in Queensland, Austrailia are refusing to co-operate with the inquest into the death of a Limerickwoman who died when the building was set alight.

Julie O`Keefe (24), originally from Dromore Rise, Raheen was among those who perished in the fire at a Backpackers Hostel in Queensland, in June 2000.

Julie O`Keefe had just graduated from Waterford I.T. and was travelling across Australia when tragedy struck.

She was staying at the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers on June 23rd 2000 when a homeless fruit picker, Robert Long, set the building on fire.

Long is currently serving a life sentence for starting the fire where fifteen other people lost their lives.

Robert Long

However, the inquest is being held to decide whether or not there should be further charges brought as family members of the dead claim that there was insufficient fire safety measures at the hostel

From ITV News

The hearing has already been told that windows of the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers, Queensland, had been barred and exits blocked.

A bunk bed had blocked the exit in one room where nine bodies were found and the windows were barred, a policeman told the inquest.

Seven British, three Australians, two Dutch and one each from South Korea, Japan and Ireland died in the fire.

There was one big firework set off for the 4th of July at Cape Canaveral in Florida yesterday as Shuttle Discovery, carrying an experinment being run in conjunction with the University of Limerick lifted off.

A brief reminder of what the experinment involves can be found by clicking here.

From Space.com

After two scrubbed attempts, Discovery shot spaceward at 2:37:55 p.m. EDT (1837:55 GMT) from Pad 39B here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The launch marked NASA’s first-ever shuttle flight to leave Earth on Independence Day.

“Discovery’s ready, the weather’s beautiful, America is ready to return the space shuttle to flight.,” NASA launch director Michael Leinbach told Discovery’s astronaut crew just before liftoff. “So good luck and Godspeed, Discovery.â€?