Madeline Whelan was removing presents from under the Christmas tree in the front room of the family home in St Mary’s Park yesterday.

A massive clean-up operation is continuing to clear a near 10-acre illegal rubbish tip in a Limerick housing estate. Workers are in the process of removing hundreds of tonnes of waste material from the site in St Mary’s Park.

For decades Christy Keane’s family ran a sizeable coal delivery business from their base in St Mary’s Park, better known as the Island Field. He soon discovered his delivery business was an ideal cover to get into drugs.

All necessary funding will be given to build flood defences at St Mary’s Park in Limerick, where homes were flooded last February after the Shannon burst its banks, a junior minister has pledged.