TUESDAY,JANUARY 9, 2018 €1.20 LIMERICK AND PROUD facebook.com/limerickleader @limerick_leader www.limerickleader.ie WHERE SOLD FASHION, FITNESS &MORE MAKE AHEALTHY STARTTO2018 WITH TOPTIPSFROMOUR COLUMNISTS INSIDE Charity SIGN UP FOR MILFORD’S COUNCIL 10K RUN TO TALK ON OPERA PAGE 12 Court ACOSTLY ‘ROMANTIC HOUSING GESTURE’ Local authoritybosses to face questions on changetoplans tial scheme backin2011. NICK RABBITTS e-mail: [email protected] The information –uncovered Twitter: @nick468official throughthe Freedom of Information act–brought aboutfresh questions PAGE 10 COUNCIL bosses areset to face aboutwhy housing wasnot included questions overwhy plans for in thefresh plans forthe office-block developmentunveiledlast year. ‘Crime scene’extended in probe housing were stripped out of the Five councillors have nowsigned a €150m Project Operadevelopment. request forameeting,which Mayor Gardai at HenryStreethavebeen granteda48-hour extension overthe ‘crime It comes after theLimerickChron- scene’ataflatonLittle O’CurryStreet, wherethe body of Martin Clancy, inset, icle revealed initial plans for161 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 wasfound on Sundayevening. StatePathologistProfMarie Cassidy,pictured units of accommodation in theini- above, carried out an examination on Mondayafternoon PICTURES: LIAM BURKE/PRESS 22 JOHNDEIGNANS MENSWEAR &SHOES Nowisthe time to buyyour suit! WINTER SALE NOWON! 2O’Connell Ave, Limerick. Opposite St. Joseph’sChurch. |Phone 061-317492 |Monday-Saturday09.30am 6pm 2 LIMERICK CHRONICLE Tuesday, January 9, 2018 YOUR CHRONICLE ● Main switchboard forour office at CONTACTUS 54 O’Connell Street, Limerick Call us on Since 1768 WEATHER 061-214500 Check updatesonlimerickleader.ie ● Tell us your story The Limerick Chronicle hasthe proud distinction E-mail us at of being Ireland’s oldest newspaperand has [email protected] been publishedcontinuously since 1768,more 54 O’Connell Street,Limerick ● Place an advert than 120years before itssisterpaper the Lim- www.limerickleader.ie E-mail us at erick Leader first appearedin1889. Formany [email protected] yearsthe twotitleswererivals but the Chronicle ● Photographic sales was bought by theLimerick Leader in the 1950s, EDITOR Copiesofpictures taken by ourphotographersaswell as since when theyhavebeenpart of the same TODAY TOMORROW THURSDAY Eugene Phelan the archivephotographs in all our editions can be newspaper‘stable’, and broughttoyou by the PERIODS OF RAIN MOSTLYCLOUDY MUCH DRIER ordered from ouroffice at 54 O’Connell Street, Limerick. sameteamofaward-winning journalists. The 061-214503 WITH THE WITH SOME WITH SUNNY Theycan also be ordered online from picture- Chronicle shares its sisterpaper’s highly popular MERCURYRISING SHOWERSAND A [email protected] [email protected] or through our website SPELLSAND A website TO 9°C HIGH OF 6°C www.limerickleader.ie www.limerickleader.ie HIGH OF JUST6°C PICTUREOFTHE WEEK Sparking interest in practicalexperiments among Leaving CertbiologystudentsatUL The DepartmentofBiologicalSciencesatthe UniversityofLimerick is welcoming over450 Leaving Cert Biology students from all overMunsterinto their laboratoriesthis week. Pictured above were Jennifer Frawley, Ailish Cramer and AmyCrawford from Ardscoil Mhuire, Corbally,who were conducting laboratorypracticalexperimentsset on the Leaving Cert Biology curriculum PICTURE: OISIN MCHUGH/ TRUE MEDIA TWEETS OF THE WEEK INSIDE YOUR CHRONICLE We want to hear your news and views @limerick_leader @LimerickFringe @JeromeSport @Rubberbandits NEWS ....................................................1-10 Putting pen Drum roll please! #cold Please stop slagging ..................14 READERS’ PICTURES Burrrrrr.Ladiesand Limerick (and North ..........................................15 to paper THE GUIDE Gentleman, Boys and Dublin) overviolence. ............................16-17 OUT &ABOUT Girls, it gives us great Either the people of ...............................18 MeghannMix: MEGHANNMIX pleasuretoannounce both areas areinher- ..........19-25 Meghann Scully FASHION &HEALTH the Limerick Fringe ently vicious. Or the PARENTING ..................................... 26 shares justwhereto 2018 shows arenow areas suffer from a ...................... 27 PICTURE SPECIAL online.Sit down and myriadofsocial issues, startwith the long ........................................28-29 MOTORS relax, take adeep lack of opportunityand ......................... 30-32 process of writing a CLASSIFIEDS breath and checkout funding. Which seems ........................................... 33-35 book Page 18 SPORT the shows on offer. moreplausible? Tue sday, Januar y9,20 1 8 LIMERICK CHRONICLE 3 N EWS T R I B U T ES : COMMUNITY SHOCKED BY DEATH MOTOR LOAN 7.5%* State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy carried out examinations at the apartment on Little O’Curr y Street, where Martin Clancy, inset, was found dead on Sunday PICTURE: LIAM BURKE/PRESS 22 Toying Gardai probe with crime scene at getting Mar tin’s flat acCoar?me andtalk to us to University Hospital Lim- Clancy, he said. Or need to clear your PCP finance? FI N TA N WALSH e-mail: f i nta n .wa l s h @ l i m e r i c k l ead e r. i e erick for apost-mortemex- After one of the women Twitter: @FintanY TWalsh a m i n at io n . entered theflat and dis- It isunderstood that the coveredMr Clancy’s body, Come and talk to us GARDAI at Henry Street body hada number of in- emergency services were will examine a crime scene juries when it was dis- then alerted, he added. covered at the weekend. An emotional Mary at the city centre flat Therehas been wide- Dillon, who was Mr Clancy’s where the late Martin spread shock and surprise friend, described the late Clancy was found dead on Martin Clancy as “h a p py ” Sunday night over the next person. She said that the last two days. “He was a nice old time she spoketo him was b l o ke” twoweeks agoonLittle The body of the 45-year-old O’Curry Street, and said that man, who wasliving by Donal O’Keeffe, a he was “doing okay”. himself in an upstairs friend of the late Windmill Street resident apartment on Little Denis Carroll said that he O’Curry Street, wasdis- Martin Clancy would not expect an in- coveredbetween 5pm and cidentlike this to happen in 6pm on Sunday evening. felt by the community. the area “in a million years”. Gardai are treating the Daniel Nedelcu, 50, who Friend Donal O’Ke e f fe death as suspicious and lives downstairs in the same described Mr Clancyas “a have cordoned off the whole building, said thebody was nice old bloke”. street, adjoining Windmill first discovered by a woman, It isunderstood that Street and O’Curry Street. who knew Mr Clancy. Martin Clancy was known to At 2.30pm on Monday, He said that after gardai and hada number of gardai were granted a 48- spending a week in Ro- previous convictions. hour extension to examine mania, he noticed thatMr Garda are appealing for the crime scene at Limerick Clancy wasnot athome.On witnesses to contact Henry District Cou rt . Sunday, two women arrived Street on 061-212400, the Thirty minutes later, Mr outside the building, Garda Confidential Tele- Clancy’s body was removed looking to speak to Mr phone Line 1800-666111. 4LIMERICK CHRONICLE Tue sday, Januar y 9, 20 1 8 N EWS D E V E LO P M E N T: LEDDIN SEEKING ACCOMMODATION IN NEW APPLICATION FOR €150M DEVELOPMENT Warning Project Opera ‘could be rejected over a lack of housing’ NICK RA B B I T TS hered to balanced mixed de- e-mail: n i c k @ l i m e r i c k l ead e r. i e velopment, and Icannotsee Twitter: @ n i c k 4 68 o f f i c i a l whythis should notbethe s a m e.” COUNCILLOR Joe Leddin He said if Limerick is as- believes there is a “h uge piring to be a ‘living city’, risk” of An Bord Pleanala some aspect of residential in Project Opera is necessary. rejecting the Project Opera “We are already strug- application if it does not gling withprofessionals contain housing. trying to find good quality accommodation in the city Local authority chief exec- or anywhereelse. Evenbe- utive Conn Murray told fore these projected jobs ar- members prior to rive, we already have a huge Christmas that rather than issue with good qualityac- them having thefinal say commodation in the city over the €150m plans, as is c e ntre,”he added. normally the case with Cllr Leddin also pointed publicprojects, it will be to other office spaceinthe thenational appeals body city which also remains va- which has the verdict. cant, saying: “The economy This cameafter lobbying is doing well, theMid-West from many groups, in- region is doing well. But cluding An Taisce, which things are cyclical. We have suggested that anEnviron- available office space around mental ImpactAssessment the city which are empty. We (EIA) is needed. must be careful not to have On foot of this, and legal all our eggs in one basket in advice, MrMurray saidLim- the sense this is public e r ic k ’s biggest development money funding this product. in recent times will go If therewas to bea cyclical straight to An Bord Pleanala. downturn in a few years, are The move led toanger in we going tohave empty of- some quarters, with a fice blocks across the place? growing lobby of people We just need to be careful.” seeking accommodation in I t’s envisaged that Project the plan. Opera, the key plank of the Despite an escalating Limerick 2030 plan, will de- housing crisis, there are An architecht’s impression of the proposed €150m Project Opera development in the city liver around 3,000 jobs to the onlythree high-riseoffice urban area. blocks planned in Patrick The Limerick Twenty Stre et . “If we send up this applic- ‘Let ’s get the home- development outfor a said if the appeals body re- Thirty DAC has so far de- Now, Cllr Leddin has ation in its current format, couple of years, and I don’t jects the plan, it will not re- clined to comment on its called forLimerick Twenty we run the risk ofAn Bord work right from the think anybody really wants flect well on the council.