Limerick City Council plans to discuss “neighbours from hell”
Fairview Crescent
A SPECIAL meeting of Limerick City Council has been convened to discuss the plight of up to 20 people who had to flee in terror from their “neighbours from hell” in Garryowen.
Former mayor and Independent councillor John Gilligan said the council has a ‘moral responsibility’ to give preference to families forced to leave, instead of adding them to the council’s ever-growing housing waiting list, which now stands at over 3,000.
Cllr Gilligan said the estate of Fairview Crescent, which was established less than 10 years ago, was “one of the best estates we had in the city” when it was built, and should have served as a housing model for the rest of the city.
“Unfortunately some residents proved to be neighbours from hell and a sizeable amount of people had to pack up and leave due to the terror tactics they used. The people being subjected to intimidation were the people who put a lot of money into their houses, were proud of their area and were model residents,” he said.
The council took action against a number of individuals involved in anti-social behaviour through the courts, but Cllr Gilligan said by the time the cases were dealt with the damage had already been done.
CCTV cameras have now been installed in the area, which are being monitored by gardai. However, he said residents who felt compelled to leave are now in a “state of limbo” regarding their housing situation.
A special meeting of Limerick City Council is to be convened in the coming weeks to allow councillors to discuss Fairview Crescent and other areas where residents may be subjected to intimidation.
The meeting will not be held in public, due to the “degree of sensitivity and delicacy” surrounding these issues, the director of service Kieran Lehane said.
“The members wanted to have a full and frank discussion on it, and if it was held in public information could be inferred about particular households,” he said
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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Comments
There are 12 comments to this article
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Smyrnian
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 01:16 PMPaddymog - Well said. I second that idea! A REAL prison for doing hard time where these boyos spend their days reducing big rocks to little stones with sledgehammers; all day every day. Another idea is enforced mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes including these so called "quality of life" "offenses". No discretion allowed the judge. It never feels like a "quality of life" thing when some poor victim is at the receiving end of their thuggery.
Paddymog
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 10:17 AMAll the money spent on regeneration should have been spent on a big MOFU of a jail. That's what Limerick needs - a penal institution to break the thugs.
BWRA
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 12:31 PMThis notion of spreading the problem around will not work; rewarding bad behaviour merely encourages it. The residents that fled Fairview Crescent are law abiding and decent, as are most of the people displaced from regeneration areas. The criteria for moving people out depends on whether their home is in the way of a proposed road and because of this land grabbing agenda a minority of bad apples have been displaced, and it only takes one bad apple to ruin the proverbial barrel. Meanwhile, regeneration areas continue to endure the anti-social and criminal behaviour of a minority, despite claims to the contrary that these areas have been "stableised". Elderly residents continue to be targeted and tormented out of their homes; having long finished paying their mortgage they are bought out by the council for a pittance (â¬30,000) and turned into tenants. Their homes are boarded up and left to be looted for copper, vandalised and eventually burnt out. This has a domino effect on the remaining residents on the block who in turn look to be "relocated". Over 1,000 families have been displaced since 2007. Anti-social behaviour needs to be challenged by the state. Regeneration areas were promised a dedicated Garda service to "restore confidence and stability", this never happened, hence the exodus. Some, like in Fairview Crescent, have abandoned their homes because they are not in the way of proposed regeneration roads so the council won't "buy" them out. It's good that the CCTV cameras will be monitored by the GardaÃ. The CCTV cameras that we got in Ballinacurra Weston remain unmonitored. In the past two weeks there have been a murder, two shootings and ongoing stoning of residents homes - all under the "watchful" eye of the cameras. Keyes Park in Southill (5-minutes walk from Roxboro Garda station) was destroyed under the "watchful" eye of such cameras. The government, Limerick City Council and the Regeneration Agencies have a lot to answer for.
donal moore
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 08:48 PMI Am a Relative a Family, who unfortunately , were Driven out of "Their "Fairview Crescent Garryowen " Home Some Time ago. While Residing in this Appauling place, After A Period of Time,. This Family Were Subjected to Very "Traumatic , Physical ,Mental Abuse ,. These People "Never "Ever Deserved What they Got From A small Group of Undesirables This Family Went about Their daily Routine Without Interfering with anybody, only to be Set upon on A"Constant Basis. My Heart goes Out to my Relatives Who i Might I add Loved Their "Home at begining until things began to deteriorate so "BADLY, FOR THEM. Not Alone Had my Relatives to Leave the Said Area But "20 Other Families too.The Majority of these Unfortunate people are now holding out "Enormous Rent for Houses First of All that they will never call their Own, and secondly can Be Asked To Leave at Any Time. I Just Want to Highlight this "Terrible Situation on Behalf of my "Tormented Family,Who Are "THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN "PRACTICALLY HOMELES .My Point is That 1 Think IT is "Hightime that ""LIMERICK CITY COUNCIL Did Something for These People A.S.A.P. Before We Have More SUICIDES To Deal With!. SERIOUSLY _ONE HAS TO EXPERIENCE WHAT THIS FAMILY HAS BEEN THROUGH BEFORE THEY UNDERSTAND _"HELL AND BACK IS WHAT I SAY! "COME ON ,LIMERICK CITY COUNCIL, WAKE UP! A VERY TORMENTED RELATIVE.
Paddymog
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 07:20 PMPending Moderation
the100
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 03:45 PMSmyrnian, That would work too, Iâd love to see what way the statistics would play out if you were to examine them and lets say, see what the levels of crime would be if after a persons 3rd or 4th conviction they were given a mandatory 5 year conviction to be served in full. Would there be a massive drop in Crime?
Smyrnian
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 03:39 PMI'm for helping them integrate into prison life instead.
the100
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 02:55 PMAt the end of the day these people have to integrated in to, what I would term, normal society. The creation of estates like Garryowen, Moyross and South hill etc. has been a terrible disaster. I hate to say it because I do not want to have to live near any of them, but, they have to be sprinkled out amongst the rest of Limerick. One of the worst things is that it will probably take a few generations before they actually begin to fit in. But at least by spreading the people from council houses out amongst the rest of the wider community they can live normal productive lives, and the ones that are neighbours from hell will continue to be neighbours from hell, but at least itâs a better chance that their children may not be as bad as they are. Iâm trying not to sound condescending or overly blunt and if I come across like that Iâm sorry. But I feel it has to be said. On a different note, how much does it cost to provide one of these trouble families with everything they need? In these recessionary times Iâd love to throw them out onto the streets. Cut off all payments to them. Cut off all housing. Everything. Let them provide for themselves. Suppose that would bring its own set of problems though. So keeping that in mind, Iâll stand by my âSprinkle Themâ idea.
david014
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 11:39 PMFirstly John O from what I hear and read the county Limerick towns of Rathkeale and Newcastle West are no better than many parts of Limerick city. Secondly the reason these people get local authority houses is because no one in city council lives there. When regeneration promised not to let scum from these areas back in when their houses were knocked there was uproar. We dont want them on our estates, property prices will fall, antisocial behavior, drugs etc etc. It was not a case of dumping thugs on decent people, it was a case of not dumping thugs on our kind of decent people.
Paddymog
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 07:54 PMJohn O' - wasn't there an eponymous staff writer in the Leader at one time? Anyway, your point is well made. What good will a special meeting of wafflers and spoofers do? The City Council has a starutory duty to manage its estates properly, and that's an executive matter for the City Manager, not something for the members to utilise for cheap political capital and headline-grabbing. The 20 goms will go in and listen to the councillors outdoing one another with florid speeches, and will go away sure that some of it makes a difference. The councillors will aim to get 20 votes by promising them houses somewhere else - anywhere else. Meanwhile, what will the skobes do in Fairview? They'll burn out the houses after they strip them of copper and cables.
Smyrnian
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 01:43 PMWell said, John O'Shaughnessy!
John O'Shaughnessy
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 03:29 PMI wonder how these anti-social neighbours-from-hell were allocated a househouses in this lovely new estate in the first place? Limerick City Council have responsibility for vetting all applicants for local authority housing, before allocating houses. Was this done properly in this case? Or was it a case of 'dumping' such thugs in among decent people? Limerick has been badly served for decades by its local authority. It is high time that competent, courageous and effective local government was put in place in Imerick City. I know of many friends who will avoid Limerick City like the plague, opting to travel to Tralee, Killarney, and even Cork City instead for social outings and shopping trips. Even County LImerick is now infested with some of these City rejects. Thank goodness, they do not seem to be able to survive in decent society and return to LImerick CIty. For myself, I gave up on LImerick City in the '80s when herds of wild piebalds and 'batty' ponies, with wide eyes and flaring nostrels, charged wildly on main roads and streets- to the danger of motorists and pedestrians. There was more order and government in Soweto at the time, than in LImerick. That was when Limerick City was lost to the thugs and other non-humans. It has yet to be retaken from thieves, robbers, murderers and psychopaths. No amount of propaganda, airbrushing of facts, and 'regenertaion' political spoofs will change LImerick. Maybe Willie O'Dea will retake LImerick the next time he gets a gun in his hand! That would seem to be a lot safer than Willie having a pen in the hand! Or a microphone in his face. In the meantime, my money goes to the safer County Limerick towns - and to Cork and Kerry.
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