A third of all shootings in country occur in Limerick city

A THIRD of all shootings in the country occur in Limerick city, a garda chief revealed yesterday.

Chief Superintendent Gerry Kelly, head of the Limerick Garda Division, also said a high percentage of legally held shotguns stolen in the country end up in the hands of Limerick criminals. His revelations about the city's gun problem came at a private two-hour meeting with city council members.

After the meeting, Chief Supt Kelly said: "At the beginning of this year a third of all shootings which occurred in the 25 garda divisions in the State, happened in Limerick. I have deployed extra 24-hour armed patrols in the city and this has brought the number of shootings to somewhere between one-third and one-quarter for the entire country, at present.

"The number of shootings in Limerick is totally disproportionate compared to the rest of the country."

He said they were major gun seizures weekly in the city. "I have lost count of the number of guns we have seized over the past year. We put them on display for a camera crew recently and we had hardly room in the conference room at Henry Street for them," he said.

"The Dublin Metropolitan area would be the only area with more shootings than Limerick. But pro-rata the incidence of shootings in Limerick is far greater."

Chief Supt Kelly said he had to draw on all the resources of the entire Limerick Division to deal with the city's gun problem.

One of the councillors at yesterday's meeting, Kieran Walsh, said he was shocked at what he heard.

"It is appalling to think the level of shootings in Limerick is at this level. The guards in Limerick are doing an extraordinarily fine job in extremely difficult circumstances with regard to resources. Huge numbers of guns have been recovered and people have been brought before the courts, but more gardaí must be sent into Limerick to deal with what is still a very serious problem with guns being used by criminals."