The alarm was raised at 2300 hrs last night when the teenager was found lying on a footpath outside the Carrig Midhe estate with a chest wound.

He was rushed to the Midwest Regional hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

A second teenager has since been arrested by Gardai investigating the death and he is currently being held at Mayorstone Garda Station.

UPDATE: Another teenager who was also ingured in this incident is being treated at the Mid Western Regional Hospital. His condition is said to be stable.

The teenager in custody at Mayorstone is said to be from Limerick.

Post mortem examinations on the victim have determined that his death was caused by an inury from a sharp impliment.

UPDATE: A 16 year old currently being questioned by Gardai has had his period of detention extended by a further six hours.

He was arrested at 0800 hrs this morning and without an extension, he would have had to be released at 2000 hrs this evening.

UPDATE: The victim has been named as Roman Vysochan (16) of Ashley Close, Westbury

Gardai are reported to be treating as suspicious, the death of a 77 year old woman at her home in Coonagh, County Limerick.

RTE news reports that the house has been sealed off for a technical examination and the office of the state pathologist has been contacted.

The woman has not yet been named.

Related link from RTE news.

UPDATE: A post mortem is due to be carried out today.

UPDATE: Following their investigations, Gardai are now treating this death as a tragic accident.

As part of Operation Platinum, a number of individuals were given questionaires to complete. If they do not satisfy the CAB as to how they gained such wealth, they will not have their payments restored.

Barry Duggan has more in the independent.

Of the 12 orders applied for at the court, the Gardai were given the right to hold on to cash for three months for ten of the orders. A six week period was granted for one order and another will be reviewed on Monday.

In total €250,000 in Euro, Sterling and US dollars were seized yesterday. The initial amount was thought to be €100,000.

The work of the CAB goes on, and we could be seeing as many as 12 houses being seized in the not too distant future.

The big screen is coming back to O’Connell Street on May 24 for the Heineken Cup final between Munster and Toulouse.

Upwards of 10,000 people turned out for the debut of the big screen when Munster defeated Biarritz in 2006. It was claimed at the time that images of Munster supporters on O’Connell Street beamed into the Millennium Stadium by Sky Sports is what inspired the Munster team to push harder to take the cup in the dying moments of the game.

Jan frohburg is Lecturer at the Architecture Faculty at the University of Limerick. This semester at the college, third level students at the School of ARchitecture have been set the task of coming up with a design for a youth and community centre for Castletroy. The twenty different designs will be competing for five prizes which will be announced at a public meeting on Wednesday at 1900 hrs at the Architecture School.

Mr. Frohburg was kind enough to give a brief interview on the project and how it is hoped that Limerick County Council will realise, through this project, the demand for such a centre in the Castletroy area.

The interview is below.

Why did you decide on a competition to design a youth cafe?

The school was always very interested in getting involved in Limerick City in a wider sense, and deal with relevant projects, We had been approached by Trish Forde-Brennan, pointing out that there was an action group at Castletroy College that is pushing for the idea of a youth centre, and if we’d be prepared to submit designs for it. We looked into that and felt that it was a relevant idea to deal with. It is very suitable for third year students in that it provides a degree of complexity in the programme, and we wanted our students to work on things that can draw motivation out of realising how important or relevant it is to other people in the community so they don’t feel they are simply working for us, or for filing it away afterwards. That is why we decided to take on the project. We are still an educational institution here so we had to find a way to educate our students through that project. At a point we had to make it clear that we won’t come up with a design that will be built straight away, but we are happy to put forward those twenty designs, let those fuel a discussion of what is possible, what would be asked for in a building like this, what’s reasonable,what’s possibly unreasonable to include, where do possible conflicts arise, and how could seemingly conflicting ideas be successfully merged through clever design.

Have you identified a potential site for this cafe and what did location on?

When we started on the project, we went out to the Castletroy area. A site was suggested, but we weren’t too happy with that suggestion, so we took the decision on choosing a different location that seemed more suitable for us. It is right next to the Castletroy College, right next to the newly constructed skate park, it has road frontage, it also has the chance to relate back to what seems to be emerging as the neighbourhood centre around the shops along Vivo and Synott’s Pub, and the college. There is also a childcare facility down there as well. We felt that a youth centre should help to reinforce that emerging neighbourhood centre rather than being tucked away in fields. We felt access was a very important point. To provide easy access for people, coming by bike, walking there, hopefully getting the bus and we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t reliable on car traffic.

What did the cafe design design have to include?

We’ve given them a site, and we have given them a brief. That brief was based other successful community and youth centres recently completed in Ireland where some of our colleagues have been involved, for instance Grainne Hassett, who teaches here has recently won the AAI’s Downes Medal for Hassett/Ducatez’ youth centre in Tallaght, so the brief we gave our students was based on similar projects. They were asked to include a community hall, a number of function rooms to hold classes for instances, and a youth cafe with games facilities and internet facilities, a library,plus a number of services that need to go along with that, such as offices, some back rooms, toilets, changing rooms things like that. Then we had a meeting with that Action Group from Castletroy College that again illustrated what they were hoping to find in such a project, and it was actually that meeting which inspired our students to get into the project. Getting real people, a real client, the real needs involved made a real difference to the students.

Picture: Third year architecture students at UL put the finnishing touches on their designs for a youth and community centre in Castletroy

This is a hypothetical contest, would you like to see Limerick County Council do it for real?

I hope they do. I hope they take on ideas that have been developed through our student work here, and I hope they use those in developing a real community building for the Castletroy area, that we feel, and that the Castletroy College students felt is highly in demand. Again,it was hypothetical in our choice of site, it was hypothetical in our choice of programme, but with that, it’s now more tangible and Limerick County Council should ask what it is it we really need, and the local community might have a wider idea of what they could and should be asking for, what a community centre could provide and we hope that an architects competition should be held to find the best design for that.as we feel this would be the appropriate way to ensure quality in such a design.

Were the Castletroy College students involved in this project?

We had one meeting with that action group of Castletroy College students very early on in February when we got started here. We based some of the brief on a questionaire they had prepared to determine what they wanted by the local community. During that meeting we also discussed their wishes and desires, what was missing, and why they had started that action group in the first place. It became clear that rather than looking for an exclusively youth orientated cafe and hang-out space, they were well aware and open to the idea that a facility like that should be open to more members of the community, not just students, that they should be able to bring their younger brothers and sisters along, and as well provide facilities that could be used by other groups in the community. I was quite impressed at how community minded those students were and how they were open to incorporate facilities for many more in the neighbourhood.

Have you had any response from Limerick County Council

Yes we had. We met with Anthony Coleman [Development officer, Limerick County Council] and he was very interested in learning about this project, and he’ll be coming back to be a juror to select the five most successful of the entries.

A blog for people who are in an apartment, or who are required to move a lot and who wish to grow fruit.

The blog Pots of Fruit is run by Maria, who is currently based in Corbally.

From the about section of the blog.

This blog is all about growing fruit in pots. For those of us who have limited space or might be moving house regularly, we can still grow loads of mouth watering fruit to enjoy. I’m trying to learn as much as possible and document my successes and my mistakes as I go.

Pots of Fruit has been added to our list of Limerick blogs. If you are from Limerick, or have a blog relating to Limerick, do not hesitate to drop us a mail with the link to editors@limerickblogger.org

250 Gardai have raided a total of 120 housss in housing estates like Ballinacurra Weston, Southill, St. Mary’s Park and Moyross.

30 professional and business premises were also raided, and continue to be searched.

Items recovered include, documents, computers, drugs, guns and cash. Three people have already been arrested and are being detained at various Garda stations around the city.

The searches will continue for the rest of the day and may run into tomorrow also.

Solicitors offices and accountants were amongst the business properties searched today.

UPDATE: Some of the items seized today:

Documentation

Computer equipment

Cash, totalling in and around €100,000 in both Euro and Sterling

2 Firearms

Ammunition

Drugs, believed to be worth around €200,000 consisting of ecstasy and cocaine.

Three men in their 20s have also been arrested.

UPDATE: The three men who were arrested have been released without charge.

Limerick is to be part of a new initiative between both tourist organisations in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The Orange Trail will start in Derry City, head over to the site of the Battle of the Boyne, down to Limerick where the Williamites renaged on the treaty, and off to Kinsale where after a 13 day siege, they took Charles fort, bringing an end to the Jacobite-Williamite war.

The reaction to this one is going to be … interesting.

Clickety Click.

Now the owners of the Galvone are selling up, and the Regeneration Agency (southside) are in negotiations to buy the place with a view to redeveloping the area.

According to the Examiner, the Regeneration Agency will hold onto the liquor licence in the hope that a public house might fit in to the newly developed area at the entrance of what is now O’Malley Park.

Meanwhile the Shebeen, known as Ma Kelly’s has survived four separate Garda raids, and now Roxboro Gardai are hoping to go the legal route. Limerick City Council are also exploring the possibility of going after the Kellys using planning legislation. The shed in the back garden of the Kelly family home is not zoned for recreation use, but for storage.

From the Examiner