The Limerick Blogger - latest Limerick news and Limerick events

A 30 year old man has appeared at Listowel District Court and has been charged with the double murders of Michael (60) and Dennis Hanrahan (27) last Thursday.

Thomas Barrett of Cleandries, Causeway, Co Kerry replied “no” to each of the charges as they were read out in court.

He was remanded into custody at Cork Prison and will be before the court again on Wednesday.

Our favorite Kerry based stormfronter has been up to his old tricks again. From Google search:

Black cabs in Limerick - Stormfront White Nationalist Community
Thats a great one 061 414141 ask for a cab wreck their heads.Pretend you cant speak english and pretend you cant understand what they are on about wreck …
www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=5306722 - 1 hour ago

While stormfront.org is no longer cached by google, if you know exactly what you are looking for, you can find it in snippet size bits in the search index. the general gist of the message is calling for fellow racists to call up Set Price Taxis and basically disrupt their lawful business, either by clogging up their lines with nuisance calls, or sending drivers on wild goose chases.

The problem they have is that the company is an equal opportunities employer. It does not discriminate based on colour of skin, which our armchair racist friends do not like.

While the above message was promptly removed by Stormfront Ireland’s Canadian based moderator, the person who posted the initial message returned to post the company’s phone number.

So if there is anyone from Set Price reading this, be wide to these people.

Regeneration will not be successful unless there is internment. The gardai know who is responsible for these feud-related crimes, the dogs in the street know who is responsible. Why not lock them up and stop them carrying out these random acts of violence?

-Fr. Joe Young, Former Curate of Southill

Father Joe Young, is the latest in an ever growing list of people calling for the internment of suspected criminal gang member in Limerick.

While locking up people without the inconvenience of a trial might be tempting, it can only in one result, disaster.

So what exactly is internment? Many who read this site may be familiar with, or have memories of suspected IRA members being interned by the British Government in the 1970s and 1980s. This was done in an effort to prevent them from blowing stuff up, but it ended up polarising the nationalist communities and internees were celebrated as heroes to the cause.

Internment is the imprisoning of individuals without a trial, for an indeterminate length of time.

The problem I would have with it would be that because a system of internment is being administered by human beings, they are, sooner or later, going to get it wrong, resulting in some innocent sod being dragged off the street and thrown into a cell for no particular reason.

In Limerick in particular, organised crime is centered around families. This poses the risk of someone being thrown into custody simply for being related to a suspected criminal. While you can choose your friends in this life, you cannot choose your family.

It is truly shocking that a man of the cloth, a Catholic priest who should be old enough to remember the internment of people in Northern Ireland, should be supportive of such measures.

What should be done, is the expansion of the role of the Special Criminal Court. While the SCC is far from perfect, it is the lesser of too evils when compared to internment

Also, for drugs and gun related crimes, judges need to be forced to observe manditory sentencing. Many judges are opposed to mandatory sentencing as it takes away some of their powers, but if the courts do not reflect the opinion of the law abiding people in society, then the legal system is not going to function properly or earn any respect.

The presence of the armed Emergency Response Unit failed to prevent a gun attack in St. Mary’s Park over the weekend.

A house in the estate had it’s front door shot at on Saturday night. While the house was occupied at the time, there were no injuries.

According to today’s Limerick Leader newspaper, Gardai believe the attack was feud-related.

A body found in the Oranmore area of Galway over the weekend has been identified as missing University of Limerick student Michael Hughes. He was originally from County Longford.

The 20 year old was last seen at 0145 hrs on 20th February in Ayre Square in Galway, having been seen earlier that day socialising at the bar at NUI Galway.

Gardai confirmed his identity yesterday.

Two shotguns are being examined as part of the double murder investigation now under way at Moyvane, close to the Kerry/Limerick border.

Michael (60) and Dennis Hanrahan were found dead on Thursday morning in the bedroom of their house. Dennis Hanrahan was found in his own bed and his father was found on the floor of his son’s bedroom.

A legally held firearm belonging to the Hanrahan household was found, but it is not believed to be the weapon used in the murder.

A second gun is also being examined, however no information is being released as to where this gun was found or how significant it is in relation to the investigation.

Last night, a 30 year old man was arrested after he presented himself to Gardai. He is understood to be a neighbour of the two dead men. He is not related to them.

Michael Hanrahan was an active member of his community, organising numerous events for the Fine Gael party, as well as contributing to community notice sections of both the Limerick Leader and Kerryman newspapers.