Over the weekend there was a shooting in Dooradoyle where a 28yr old fella was shot dead walking home after the Ireland/Canada game. He was captain of the Garryowen 3rds and from the area. The guards are saying that it was probably a case of mistaken identity and the hit-men thought he was a member of the feuding families.
Now up until now I have been fairly blase about this whole 'Family Feud' thing in Limerick. It has never really affected me and although I do have relatives in some of the areas most of them have nothing to do with it. I have always been of the opinion that as long as they were just killing each other then there was no real problem. This shooting has changed all that though.
When I heard it I actually started feeling very angry. Partly because of what happened but also because of what was going to happen i.e nothing. Perhaps the people who did it will get caught, but I don't hold out much hope. And even if they do, they will spend a few years in prison, make a few contact, learn a few tricks and be back out unchanged men. Treating the symptoms just does not appear to be working. Reading the papers or Limerickblogger.ie I am already seeing the calls for politicians heads to rolls or for extraordinary measures to be taken. While it is all understandable does it really help? It is much easier to be outraged and demand someone else actually does something that to actually do something yourself. Thing is though, people don't want to actually have to do anything to stop this, complaining is much easier.
Why was this guy shot? The obvious answer is that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's true but why was there a shooting in the first place? This feud is about a lot of things, history, territory, power and money but mostly about money. And where do they get their money from, a bit of racketeering, maybe some extortion but mostly drugs, this shooting was about drugs. And that in my mind is how ordinary people can help stop all this shit going on in the city. It is the money coming from middle-class casual drug users that is funding these gangs.
There is no such thing as a harmless drug. People who use coke, pills or any type of weed, however infrequently, or who support the use of them have absolutely no moral right whatsoever to condemn or despair at this shooting. The path might be convoluted but the cost of gun that killed this innocent 28 yr old or the payment made to the hit-men that did it was paid for by the joint you took a drag of, that line you snorted, the single pill you took.
30B430: Make and bury a time capsule
9 years ago
4 comments:
When someone's own fucking NEIGHBOURHOOD is the "wrong place at the wrong time", it's a sorry state of affairs. The more I think about this, the angrier I get.
I think a silent protest with the entirety of Limerick in attendance would be a start...
But who would stick their neck out and organise it?
i completely agree. i knew stephen. not particularly well but he worked on the summer camp years ago and genuinely could not meet a nicer guy. it's strange how hollow those words sound when they come out pat like that, and i've often thought that when i've heard tributes being made to people killed in similar circumstances. when you're the one saying them though, and you're only saying it because there's nothing else you can say, you realise how much emotion lies behind them.
my first reaction wasn't sadness or grief though. it was pure, visceral fury. how dare they. how fucking dare they. like paul said nothing has done more to conclusively defeat the idea that these scumbags inhabit a separate world than this. a silent protest is a brilliant idea. don't know if it could or would work but limerick's a small enough town for local people to be able to make a stand and for it not to be ignored. i would love to see it happen and i'm embarrassed to say that i don't have a clue how to go about trying to see that it does and the thought of doing so terrifies me.
ok, clarify this silent protest thing... is that where everyone stands outside the place of the accused. that would be a great idea. the problem is who do you stand outside? the trigger man or the guys that called the hit? who called it? what would happen if it did go ahead, could the organiser live with peoples blood on their hands.
snap on the blog topic paul.
Stupid UL computers did not let me post my last comment. With regards the silent protest, I think it is just somewhere in the city and it is really just a way of venting at whats happened. At least thats how I see it, a way of showing solidarity and the debth of feeling about it. Here is information on one I have heard of
http://www.limerickblogger.ie/blog/2008/11/march-in-memory-of-shane-geoghegan#comments
There is also going to be one in UL on Wednesday at 2pm in the Plaza, which I think is a bit pointless, especially as 80% of those attending will have used drugs at one stage or another.
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