Limerick rises up against criminal gangs
Led by the family of Roy Collins – the 35-year-old businessman gunned down on April 9 – more than 5,000 people marched to City Hall in support of a campaign to stamp out criminal gangs.
Stephen Collins, Roy’s father, said he hoped the demonstration would pressure the Government into pushing through tough new anti-gangland laws.
“People are sick of this,” he said, of the city’s spiralling gun violence. “They haven’t had a chance to stand up and be counted before.”
Defence Minister Willie O’Dea attended the rally and said tough new measures were due before cabinet this week.
Mayor John Gilligan told the gathering: “The people of Limerick city are sick of these criminals; they have never represented us and don’t represent what we are about.”
He described the gang members as “people without any love, without any compassion, without any grief – all the noble things which distinguish us from the beast”.
A minute’s silence was observed for all those killed in gang-related violence.
