One-third of all shootings take place in Limerick

LIMERICK gardaí have intensified their crackdown on firearms as it emerged yesterday that nearly one-third of all shootings in the country this year happened in the city.

Last year, Limerick accounted for 83 of the 313 recorded shooting incidents in the State.

And there is concern that the pattern has already worsened over the first two months of this year.

Crime figures for 2006 obtained by the Irish Examiner show that there were 17 recorded shooting incidents in the entire Southern Garda Region which takes in five divisions in Cork, Kerry and Limerick. Fifteen of those happened in Limerick and the other two in Kerry.

One garda source said: “Of the total shootings in the State so far this year, one-third have happened in Limerick city.”

Last weekend, there were four shooting incidents in the city, three on one night in St Mary’s Park when a patrol car was fired on while investigating two earlier shootings in the area.

Most of the shootings involve attacks on houses with windows and doors being shot in.

In a recent interview with the Irish Examiner, the head of the Limerick Garda Division Chief Supt Willie Keane voiced his concern at what he described as the “substantial increase” in the number of shootings in Limerick. The rate of shootings, he said, was disproportionate to other major centres of population.

Last year, more than 30 firearms, which included sawn-off shotguns, rifles and powerful semi-automatic hand and machine guns, were recovered by gardaí.

On St Patrick’s Day 2005, a man travelling in a taxi was found carrying a powerful Ingram submachine gun and was delivering it to a major feud gang in the southside of the city. This gun can discharge up to 14 bullets in less than a second.

Chief Supt Keane said many illegally held guns were being brought in from Eastern Europe.

A garda source said yesterday: “An availability of guns seems to have developed in Limerick and this has led to a gun culture.”

Many stolen legally held shotguns end up in the hands of Limerick criminals as there is a ready market for these weapons.

Extra patrols have been put in place in certain hot-spots where local feuds have been responsible for sporadic shootings.

A number of men appeared at Limerick District Court earlier this week in connection with a number of recent shootings.