This Limerick Life - Noel 'Buster' Hannon
Community activist Noel 'Buster' Hannon is a familiar face in Garryowen, who advocates the powerful qualities of sporting participation. He says he'd get rid of 16 of the 17 councillors in the city and have just one mayor running the show
I worked at Tyco electronics in Shannon for 23 years. I worked as moulder and I was the shop steward there but I retired 18 months ago and I was lucky because I got a very good package, which I wouldn't have if it was now. I miss it because it was great craic and I used to look forward to going to work.
Their biggest mistake was leaving Shannon. They lost out big for cheap labour. All the products and the machinery went to India. It is a disaster over there because we had a brilliant workforce, everyone knew their job, but over in India they are Muslim and they pray four times a day and the machines are open. The product gets cold.
If you are made redundant – if you lose your job – join a gym and take up sport. When you get up in the morning you are saying, 'How am I going to kill the day?' You paint the house, you dig the garden and you do this and you do that and you run out of things to do. It is tough, especially when you have been working all your life because all of a sudden you have nothing to do.
I love looking after young fellas. I am passionate about schoolboy soccer and I am looking forward to the season starting again in a few weeks time. We have a great set-up at Geraldines AFC and I would encourage anyone who is retired to get involved in sport, especially with the underage, because it keeps them out of trouble and it is fantastic.
I have it down to two nights a week going out. I go out on a Saturday and Sunday night and that's it, there is nothing for the rest of the week. Then I have the gym, which will remain anonymous in case my female fans try to join it.
Regeneration is the biggest joke in town. It is a non-runner with me because they haven't built one house yet. They have knocked down houses but they haven't built one. There hasn't been one brick laid and they have prolonged this because it is jobs for the boys and as far as I am concerned it is the biggest joke in town.
I was the first man to highlight the city boundary and that was ten years ago. Nobody backed me up, no one backed me and now it is the popular thing and they are all jumping on the bandwagon. There should be one local authority for Limerick and they should get rid of all the councillors . That would save us an awful lot of money.
What do councillors do in Limerick? The whole thing is a talking shop. There are 17 councillors down there at City Hall and I would get rid of 16 of them and I would have one Mayor running the whole show. Going back 30 or 40 years ago some people were illiterate and they went to their councillors and their TDs. Now we have the Citizen Advice Bureau and they are professionals and they can tell you anything and they are better than any councillors.
I originally come from Prospect. Prospect and Weston are great, there were great families which came out of the flats – the Driscolls; the McMahons, the Carrolls, the Blakes, the Kennedys, the Moloneys. We had great times there.
There is a great community spirit in Garryowen. The St John's Youth Club is one of the best things ever in Garryowen and we have three great sporting clubs. We have Geraldines Soccer Club, we have St Patrick's GAA club and we have Richmond Rugby club – and I always praise these three clubs because they do so much for the community. I encourage anyone from Garryowen to play with these three clubs.
This is the most corrupt country in the world, it's run by gangsters. Sean Fitzpatrick should be in jail. Who are they kidding? I will tell you one thing, if that was America half or most of them would be in jail.
How can we be negative when we are telling the truth? There are 430,000 people out of work – is that negative? I know people who can't pay their mortgage and who will be out of their house in a few years' time. We are struggling. Look at all the interest we are paying back to the banks. In 15 years' time our children and our grandchildren will still be paying for this. Rip-Off-Ireland, that's what it is.
Interview: David Hurley
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Monday 21 May 2012
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