THE ALL Blacks rugby player Jonah Lomu switched on Limerick city's Christmas lights last night. Tonight, City Hall will be illuminated red and Shannon Bridge, Sarsfield Bridge and Baal's Bridge will be devotedly adorned with Munster flags and banners. The spirit of Limerick is on proud display.
Surrounded by a sea of red at Thomond Park tonight, the New Zealanders will chant the haka which translates as "It is death, it is death! It is life, it is life!" Days like this remind me why I loved living in Limerick during my college years.
Limerick had its contradictions, though. At night, my neighbour's exceptionally bright sensor lights became activated at the slightest noise and at any passing traffic. When I first moved in, I considered knocking on his door and asking if he might tone down the blinding lights because they shone directly into my bedroom and woke me up each night.
Before I had the opportunity to do this, gardaí dropped me to my house after my bike was stolen and enlightened me as to who my neighbour was.
For a year I lived directly opposite a leading member of one of Limerick's well-known criminal gangs. Our estate was a middle-of-the-road, new development, not far from the university and the city. Some of the Munster rugby players lived nearby. It was a comfortable, quiet and safe place to live.
Living there was entirely uneventful except for the Garda patrol car which would drive slowly into our cul-de-sac several times each day and the helicopter which would hover directly above every now and again.
The gang member's semi-detached was different to the rest of the houses in the estate with its big gates, a distinctive door and unusual windows. The neighbouring house always seemed unoccupied. There were never enough parking spaces for his nice cars, Jeeps and motorbikes and they spilled on to the grassy common area.
A polite family man who kept to himself, his pure-bred dogs hung out at our house, which facilitated a smiling acquaintance.
There is the assumption that all the "bad" people live in the "bad" housing estates and that all the "good" people live in the "good" housing estates.
By painting life in black and white terms we justify to ourselves why people behave as they do. We point the finger, tut-tut to ourselves and quietly move on.
The subtext being that organised crime is unique to parts of Limerick and that somehow it is different to crime in other parts of Ireland. We use the word "feud" as a euphemism to suggest that these internal struggles between the families prevent those on the outside from fully understanding. We explain it away as not our problem. By implication, if the feud is resolved, the shocking violence will somehow magically end.
The language we use to describe "gang warfare" has limited how we approach the issue of serious crime.
Watersheds and lines in the sand aside, the feud is not the problem. With or without the feud, organised crime will still exist. If truth be told, without the distraction of the bad blood between the warring gangs, co-ordinating the drugs supply would probably be more straightforward and lucrative for them. Our preoccupation to resolve the feud, as the fundamental issue, neglects that drug addiction levels have reached unprecedented levels.
"Ricey" is a Limerick-based contributor on the Irish internet forum www.boards.ie. Since February this year, he posted regularly about his ongoing struggle to wean himself off heroin. His posts, viewed over 50,000 times, were also relayed to Newstalk radio listeners. Initially, he took solace from those that cared enough to follow his progress.
"Hey all, I stayed clean today so looks like i can stick it out now till i get into treatment! Heh iv said that so many times before but il do it, i know i will . . . Thnaks for all the posts and for still posting here, really it does help me and at times like yesterday when i was mad at the WORLD the comments i get here help me think look its me thats the problem and i gotta start worring about myself and stop blaming others."
Ricey stopped posting in May with the resigned declaration: "Im doing ok, iv kinda gone off treatment now . . . Im going to go to treatment but not for another few weeks."
Figures from the Drug Treatment Centre Board show a near doubling in the past 10 years in the number of addicts across Ireland undergoing methadone treatment, the prescribed heroin substitute. Record seizures of heroin in recent months suggest a deepening crisis.
Speaking to Limerick councillors over the weekend, they believe that these are grossly conservative figures. One inner-city representative spoke of the pervasive fear and intimidation in his constituency. Individuals, with no connections to criminality, are increasingly forced to hide drugs and become involved in other activities which implicate and compel them to become beholden to specific factions.
Tolerating recreational drug use is an inconsistent condemnation of organised crime. Like Ricey, we have to stop blaming others.
Source: Elaine Byrne, The Irish Times, 18/11/2008
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