‘Surely there is something that could be done for us', say Limerick flood victims

Gus McNamara is struggling to keep warm. The 83-year old sits in his front room surrounded by candles, puffing on a cigarette, and staring at the fire his son Andy relentlessly stokes and fuels.

The lights went out in the pensioner’s house on Wednesday. On Thursday he buried his son Peter, 47, who passed away from a suspected heart attack. Gus’s wife Esther also died from heart disease and his daughter Mary succumbed to cancer two years ago.

Gus, of St Ita’s Street in St Mary’s Park, Limerick, fell in the dark as he made his way to bed on Thursday.